Valter Nassi, Salt Lake Metropolis’s consummate host. Lee Benson
Final night time Utah and meals lovers in every single place misplaced a legend with the passing of Valter Nassi, a Tuscan chef and the proprietor of Valter’s Osteria, a famend eatery within the coronary heart of Salt Lake Metropolis. He died after a well being battle, in response to reviews. He was 76.
After migrating from Monte San Savino, Italy, to New York, after which from New York to Salt Lake within the late Nineteen Nineties, Nassi made a reputation for himself within the Utah meals scene together with his first restaurant Il Sovono, then Cucina Toscana, then lastly Valter’s Osteria in 2013. This yr Valter’s was named a semifinalist within the “excellent hospitality” class of the nation’s premiere culinary recognition — the James Beard Awards.
Extra Pixar character than human, his shock of white hair, small-framed glasses and tidy sweaters added to his larger-than-life Italian prepare dinner persona. Patrons dined at Valter’s for the meals, sure, but in addition for the prospect to work together with the gregarious man bouncing from desk to desk, making suggestions and guaranteeing all meals met his impeccable requirements.
The doorway to Valter’s is adorned with photographs of Nassi and a litany of celebrities, maybe most notably Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr, who as soon as stated, “There may be not a greater restaurant within the nation than Valter’s.”
Nassi made an enduring impression on a nationwide viewers together with his star flip in Season 1 of “The Actual Housewives of Salt Lake Metropolis” throughout a Met Gala-themed luncheon held in his restaurant.
RIP Valter 😞🕊️ #RHOSLCpic.twitter.com/mEy6NxrXZf
— The Actual Housewives of SLC (@housewivesofslc) September 21, 2022
The consummate professional, Nassi stood stone-faced within the background whereas the ladies argued over which ones was higher buddies with him. He then served the beloved lemon and honey dessert whereas the ladies referred to as one another names.
“I’m sorry, Valter,” grew to become a meme instantly after the episode aired.
I recall going to Valter’s whereas two months pregnant. I used to be in a reasonably antagonistic relationship with meals on the time. However that’s not why I used to be there. I used to be there to see the icon in particular person, hoping to catch only a glimpse of the state’s most well-known restaurant proprietor. I used to be delighted, then, when Nassi greeted me and my husband with the identical “Buongiorno!” he would give longtime buddies, and paraded us to our desk.
I performed it secure that night time with an ordinary, albeit scrumptious pasta, however seated on the desk subsequent to us was an Italian man eating alone. Nassi greeted him with the identical effulgent heat he had greeted us, then the 2 conversed in Italian earlier than Nassi disappeared into the again kitchen. He returned with a dish I’d by no means seen earlier than — layers of pasta in a darkish sauce. The diner took a single chunk, grinned and excitedly declared one thing in Italian to Nassi, who bowed, disappeared once more and returned with one other dish which will or could not have been on the menu. This went on in the course of our meal.
As impolite as it's to stare, I couldn’t look away. I used to be watching a person doing what he was clearly born to do — share pleasure, artwork and love by his meals.
“Meals is love. Ardour. Interval,” Nassi declares in a video on Valter’s web site.
Meals, ardour and love, are precisely what Nassi delivered to Salt Lake Metropolis and the legacy for which he might be remembered.