Nick Zocco
Urban Hill
To the delight of Urban Hill’s guests, you can take the chef out of New Mexico, but you can’t take New Mexico out of the chef! True to his roots, Chef Nick infuses many of his creative dishes with the bold, flavorful influences of his native state. He started his career in 2001 at lauded... READ MORE
To the delight of Urban Hill’s guests, you can take the chef out of New Mexico, but you can’t take New Mexico out of the chef! True to his roots, Chef Nick infuses many of his creative dishes with the bold, flavorful influences of his native state. He started his career in 2001 at lauded Southwestern fine-dining restaurant La Casa Sena, followed by the Spanish-focused La Boca, where he studied under eight-time James Beard Award-nominated Chef James Campbell. It took Nick just Urban Hill’s opening year to earn his own James Beard Best Chef finalist nomination in early 2024 — followed by a semifinalist nod in 2025. Nick honed his skills for nine years in Las Vegas, where he worked as a sous chef at Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grill and under Chef David Walzog at the acclaimed SW Steakhouse in the five-star Wynn Resort — and in 2025, came full circle by beating Flay on his TV show Beat Bobby Flay. In 2017 he moved to Salt Lake City, where he started as Chef at popular Tupelo, before Brooks Kirchheimer recruited him 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.
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