CHIAVARI, Italy - There is no doubt in
my mind that Turin has some of the best restaurants in Italy. After all,
Piedmonte is the home of the Slow Food movement, so food is very much on
everyone's mind. If you are lucky enough to be in Turin this summer here are
some of the city's best restaurants and their specialties. To give you a short
introduction to the food of Turin I’ve included some suggestions by a Turinese
D.O.C., Chef Roberto Donna, and a list of his favorite Piedmontese dishes. But
more about him later, let’s start with the restaurants first.
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| Piazza San Carlo, Turin, Italy |
Savoia
Via
Corte d’Appello 13
Tel:
011 436 2288
Closed
Saturday afternoons and Sundays
Price:
Euros 36/44
In the heart of the historic center,
the restaurant’s cantina is built over tunnels which were used as secret
passages (infernotti) by the Italians
in the days when Turin, and most of northern Italy, was occupied by Napoleon
and his troops.
Savoia Specialties: pappardelle noodles
with river shrimp and bitter greens, filet of venison served on a polenta
square with a cream of radicchio, and cardoon flan with fonduta. Savoia Restaurant is one of the participants in the annual
spring chocolate festival, when they offer a special chocolate based menu.
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| Agnolotti alla Piedmontese |
Tre
Galline
Via
Bellezia, 37
Tel
011 436 6553
Closed
Sunday afternoons, Mondays and two weeks in January and three weeks in August
Price:
28/42 euros
In a 16th century palace in the heart
of the historic center, Riccard DeGiuli owns and runs this historic restaurant.
The restaurant was named Tre Galline, Three Chickens, after an open air poultry
market that was across the street when the first Tre Galline Locanda opened in
this location in the mid 1700’s.
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| Tre Galline Restaurant |
Tre Galline Specialties: Agnolotti, a type
of ravioli; bollito misto; fritto misto, deep fried bits of veal, beef, liver,
brains, sweetbreads and vegetables, sometimes called fricia in Piedmontese dialect.
Traditional dishes are offered
throughout the week: mix of roasted meats on Mondays and Tuesdays, bollito
misto Wednesday through Saturday, fritto misto on Fridays and bagna caộda on
Saturdays.
Montagna
Viva
Piazza
Emanuele Filiberto 3/A
Telephone:
011 5217 882
Price:
25/44
This down home restaurant is such a
good idea you have to wonder why no one ever thought of it before. The
restaurant is run by a group of local farmers and food producers, and as Master
cheese taster Renato Biegi explained “some of us make cheese, others make
salami, grow beef cattle, rice, fruits and vegetables, produce wine and grappa,
make olive oil, honey and marmalades, all natural biological products. What
we’ve done is bring the farm to the city.” The dining room looks like a
farmhouse kitchen; terra cotta floor tiles, red checked tablecloths cover
rustic tables.
Montagna Viva Specialties: The menu is what
you would expect if you were invited to have Sunday lunch on Zia Rosa’s farm:
homemade pasta flavored with home grown tomatoes and fragrant mountain herbs,
veal stew or roast rabbit with oven potatoes, grilled Piedmont beef, and a
large selection of cheeses. Desserts are all homemade and, like the rest of the
menu, are based on what is in season.
 |
| Corner Table at Del Cambio |
Del
Cambio
Piazza Carignano, 2
Closed
Sundays and three weeks in August
Price:
130/150
Founded in 1757 as a coffee house, this
is one of the most historic restaurants in Italy. It is certainly one of the
few that still has an in-house pastry chef, actually two, who turn out hot
bread sticks (grissini were created in Turin), and pastries daily.
Two stories beneath the glittering red
velvet benches and gold damask drapes, frescoes of cavorting cherubs and
massive crystal chandeliers, there is a 680 bottle cantina, each type of wine
held at the perfect temperature in its own section. There is even a special
room for champagne.
The King of Italy and Italy's first
Prime Minister used to meet here to discuss the affairs of the day. If the
Prime Minister wasn't available, the King would come alone. The restaurant is
within walking distance of the Royal Palace and across the street from the
first Parliament building.
Del Cambio Specialties: Traditional
Piedmontese dishes, veal tonnato, Barolo braised beef and mixed deep fried
meats, are served every day, but savvy Turinese know that Del Cambio only
serves bollito misto on Thursdays, just as it has done for hundreds of years.
And now for a few suggestions:
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| Award Winning Chef, Roberto Donna |
Chef Donna is a native of Turin
and owner of Washington D.C.’s four star Galileo Restaurant and several other
DC restaurants. He is also the author of Cooking in Piedmont, and the winner of
many prestigious culinary awards. For more information about this chef check
out his web site http://www.robertodonna.com/robertodonna/
“When I was growing up in Turin,” says
Chef Roberto Donna, my two favorite foods were ravioli del plin and the
chocolate and hazelnut cream pudding called bonet. My list is a lot
longer now and I try to include some of my favorites in the food I serve in my
restaurants.”
Here’s
his list of dishes visitors to Turin should not pass up.
Starters
Acciughe al verde, anchovies served with
basil and parsley pesto spiked with hot peppers
Vitello tonnato, razor thin slices
of rare roasted veal served with a rich tuna sauce. This is most often thought
of as a summer dish, but when the weather outside is frightful, the sauce is
served warm.
Fonduta, made from fontina
di Aosta, butter, egg yolks, milk and white truffles from Alba.
Pasta
Taglierini al rosso d’uovo – rich egg noodles,
(12 egg yolks to each pound of flour), served with butter and truffle shavings,
or sometimes with a sauce of butter, oil, onions, tomatoes, and finely chopped
chicken livers
Raviolini del plin – tiny ravioli may
be offered with a creamy cheese sauce (fonduta) or a reduced veal stock, or
even served in broth. The sauce depends on what they are filled
with.
Main courses
Brasato al Barolo – the classic
Piedmont beef slow cooked in rich red Barolo wine
Bollito misto – a mix of boiled
meats traditionally served with three piquant sauces
Fritto misto – a mix of flash
fried bits of meat, fish and vegetables. The mix is made up of
whatever is fresh in the marketplace that day.
Dessert
Bonet – the Chef’s
favorite chocolate and hazelnut cream pudding
Nocciolini di Chiavasso – a tiny cookie made
of toasted hazelnuts, sugar and egg whites, traditionally served with a
zabaglione sauce. These cookies were originally called “noisettes”, which is
the French word for nuts, but the name was changed during Mussolini’s reign in
the 1930’s.
Torta gianduia – chocolate cake
with chocolate and hazelnut cream filling and frosting.
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