This is part of a series of forward-looking predictions for 2025. Read more.
I grew up in Los Alamos, New Mexico, and moved to Salt Lake City in 2017, where I started as a chef at Tupelo before Brooks Kirchheimer recruited me in 2021, a year before Urban Hill’s opening, to ensure ample time to build the restaurant’s award-winning team and develop its diverse menu while helping run the kitchen at Hearth and Hill.
Since being at Urban Hill, I’m proud to have earned my first James Beard finalist Best Chef nomination in early 2024 and am excited to continue enriching the community and inspiring young chefs to grow in Salt Lake’s flourishing dining scene.
The biggest trend I’ve noticed recently is the vibrant cultural diversity shaping Salt Lake City. New international cuisine concepts are popping up all over the valley, and it’s exciting to see how food brings people and cultures together.
I’ve especially seen a rise in Latin-inspired cuisine, and Chinatown in South Salt Lake is thriving, transforming into a true cultural hub. Salt Lake City and its surrounding communities and cities have become a hotspot for entrepreneurs opening innovative restaurants, and it’s so great to watch this culinary scene grow. It’s growing so fast that, as a chef, it’s actually hard to keep up.
I find that I’m learning right in front of my eyes around this city. It’s teaching me that I should explore the area and eat more. There are so many new, global concepts that inspire me and keep me passionate.
Farmers markets are expanding to different parts of the valley, and what’s even more encouraging is how well the community is supporting local farmers and businesses. I hope that will continue in 2025. This is vital for strengthening our local economy. I’m particularly proud to work with local farmers during the year’s peak seasons and showcase their hard work on our menu. Having locally grown produce integrated into my dishes makes me very proud. Building strong relationships with local farmers and helping support their livelihoods is important to me. Going to farmers markets is a great way for other chefs to meet with those who grow our food locally and learn about where their ingredients come from. Salt Lake City’s Downtown Winter Farmers Market opened last month for the season and will be open through the beginning of April, that is always one of my favorites to peruse.
Looking ahead, I hope to see more growth in the form of restaurants with open-air spaces and patios, as well as more spots offering shared plates for a communal dining experience. I would like to see more energy in and around the downtown areas, more patios and places for people to gather outside during specific times of the year. I think the city of Salt Lake should really look into the more neighborhood-style streets downtown that are more walkable and that create spaces for restaurants to extend their spaces into patios. I know there are plans currently to revamp Main Street downtown, and I love this idea.
The food culture in Salt Lake has a bright future, and I’m excited to be part of that evolution.
(Nick Zocco) Nick Zocco is executive chef at Urban Hill in Salt Lake City.
Nick Zocco is executive chef at Urban Hill in Salt Lake City. He was born in Utah, raised in New Mexico and has worked in Las Vegas. For his work at Urban Hill, the James Beard Foundation nominated Zocco as a 2024 finalist for “Best Chef: Mountain (CO, ID, MT UT, WY)”. In 2024, Salt Lake Magazine’s Dining Awards crowned Urban Hill “Outstanding Restaurant of the Year.” Recent accolades of Best Fine Dining and Best Restaurant Downtown from Salt Lake City Weekly.
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