Cucina Toscana’s Changes
A couple of weeks ago I had a chance to attend a blogger’s event at Toscana, formerly Cucina Toscana, one of Salt Lake City’s premiere restaurants, located on 300 W. 300 South. It was a great opportunity to talk to the new owner and general manager and find out if many changes have been made. In the 2000s, Cucina Toscana’s high-end Italian food and its exuberant manager Valter Nassi garnered many honors, such as the Salt Lake Magazine Dining Awards Hall of Fame.
Then a few years ago, owner Ken Millo tried to open two more restaurants — an Italian fast-casual Veloce (later renamed Vivace) next door to Cucina Toscana, and a French spot called Caterina. Valter Nassi left and opened his own restaurant, Valter’s Osteria in the old Metropolitan space. Veloce/Vivace and Caterina didn’t work out. Frankly, I don’t know of any French restaurant that has succeeded in Salt Lake City in the past 15 years, and I’ve seen at least a half-dozen come and go. Also, the timing was off, since the recession hit restaurants pretty hard.
Anyway, Millo ended up losing ownership of the Cucina Toscana building. It’s now owned by Ken Murdock, who changed the restaurant’s name to simply “Toscana.” The adjoining Vivace space is now used for Toscana’s private events.
The kitchen is headed by chef Memmo Torres, who was with Cucina Toscana for many years.
Jennifer Sagers is Toscana’s general manager. She said she did “real costing” on the menu items and lowered the prices on some dishes. She ended up removing some less-popular items off the menu as well. “I tasted some things, and if I didn’t really care for them and the numbers didn’t support it, I took them off,” Sagers said.
Some dishes that made the cut were La Lasagna Classica Alla Bolognese — (handmade lasagna pasta with veal, beef reduction and parmigiano), Piccata di Pollo al Limone (butterflied chicken breasts, capers, artichokes in lemon wine sauce) and La Chiantaigiana (pork tenderloin medallions with porcini mushrooms simmered in chianti sauce).
Throughout the summer, the restaurant is offering a three-course fixed-price dinner for $19.99. It includes a salad course, a choice of the above three entrees, and tiramisu for dessert. To give you an idea of the savings, just the Piccata di Pollo dish alone is $22, and the lasagna is $24. (I can never resist a good deal!) The full menu is at Toscana.com.
My favorite taste of the evening was the paper-thin ravioli folded over spinach and ricotta filling, in a butter-and-sage tomato sauce. Heaven in two bites!
The blogger event included a gluten-free recipe contest. Amber Brady of Clinton won, and her Chocolate Panna Cotta will be featured on the menu at Toscana.
Sagers said she is adding a gluten-free section to the restaurant’s menu. She invited the bloggers to submit recipes, which were prepared by the chef Torres. Sagers and Murdock judged Brady’s Panna Cotta recipe as the winner.
Brady, of Clinton, won a $50 gift certificate to the restaurant, and her blog’s name, Dessertnowdinnerlater.com, will be listed on the menu next to the winning dessert.