Joe Sasto, a 2010 graduate of UC Davis, has established himself in the culinary world through years of experience in top restaurants and appearances on competitive cooking shows. Sasto was a finalist on the fifteenth season of “Top Chef” and later returned for an all-star edition. He is recognized for his enthusiasm for pasta and his distinctive handlebar mustache.
Currently, Sasto travels extensively to participate in food and wine festivals, pop-up dinners, charity events, and serves as a guest judge on Food Network competition shows. He has also ventured into the packaged food industry with Tantos, which produces puffed pasta chips, and Ripi Foods, a company specializing in gourmet frozen pasta.
Sasto’s first cookbook is set to be released on October 21 by Simon & Schuster. The book, titled “Breaking the Rules: A Fresh Take on Italian Classics,” includes recipes and personal stories from his career. “Cookbooks take a very long time to do,” Sasto told UC Davis Magazine. “I wanted it to be something that I was proud of and something I could hang my hat on — or hang my mustache on.”
Reflecting on why he chose this moment for his debut cookbook, Sasto said: “For the longest time I did not think I was ready to write a cookbook, because I didn’t have a restaurant. In my mind, as a young chef growing up, that was the route you went. You had a restaurant, then you would have a cookbook. Then COVID turned everything on its head. Social media made people a lot more interested in personal stories and gave chefs and creators an entirely new opportunity that wasn’t really there before. It was my best friend and Tonto’s co-founder, Sean, who really pushed and convinced me to get my proposal written. And as 2020 happened and people were starting to cook my recipes as I was posting things online, I realized people did care. People did want to know what I had to say, and people did want to cook what I was cooking. And so, it was this little birdie in my ear that kept pushing me to do this.”
Discussing the theme behind “Breaking the Rules,” Sasto explained: “Yeah, I think it speaks a lot to my own culinary point of view. I spent 10 years in Michelin-star kitchens in the world of fine dining, not only honing my craft, but understanding the so-called traditions of Italian cuisine, all these rules — what shapes of pasta could go with certain fillings and what sauces could go with certain cheeses. When I slowly became my own chef and my own person, I realized I wanted to break all these rules now that I knew them. That’s my goal with the book: to make the reader feel comfortable in their own kitchen. Maybe you don’t have an ingredient. The recipe calls for kale, but you only have arugula. Or it calls for spinach, and you only have kale. That’s okay. There are no rules. And if there are, they’re made to be broken.”
Sasto described his process for creating recipes with help from co-author Thea Balman: “I went the route of finding a co-author, Thea Balman. She really helped bring all these crazy ideas and stories that I had in my head come to life. Because at the end of the day, I’m first and foremost a restaurant chef. I’m not a cookbook author. And it’s very different writing a recipe for a home cook. She was able to take my shorthand version of these recipes that I had been cooking for years and digest them and turn them into something that was easily adapted for a home cook. And not only the recipes but also the stories. A lot of that process involved me recording voice notes.”
Although known for his focus on pasta dishes—he initially planned an all-pasta cookbook—Sasto decided after discussions with his publisher that his debut should cover more ground than just pasta: “Interestingly enough, I set out to write a pasta cookbook. That was my proposal. It was an all-pasta cookbook with all my pasta, pasta, pasta… But we had a long conversation [with the publisher] that I’m known for more than pasta… So rather than all pasta [in the book], it’s two chapters… One about dried pasta… then there’s a chapter on filled pasta… but don’t worry about making this complicated dish… The next book will probably be either pasta or bread or focaccia but this one I wanted to be much more approachable.”
Sasto credits his communication degree from UC Davis as instrumental throughout his career: “I knew I [wanted a major that] is going to translate the best to the restaurant… communication turned out to be incredibly valuable throughout my career… Kitchens are very diverse interpersonal complicated systems… Having an understanding … how things interact … how better communicate … how be good leader … helped me excel in career.”
