Piedmont is, by almost any measure, one of the greatest food and wine regions on Earth. This northwestern corner of Italy — bordered by the Alps on three sides and home to the Slow Food movement — produces some of the world's most prized ingredients: Alba white truffles, Barolo wine, Tonda Gentile hazelnuts, and gianduja chocolate. The region's culinary tradition is rooted in the land, the seasons, and an uncompromising commitment to quality that makes every meal feel like an event.
Whether you're planning a dedicated food pilgrimage or simply want to know what to order at a trattoria in Turin, this guide covers everything you need to eat and drink your way through Piedmont — from fine dining to family-run osterie, from Barolo cellars to Alba's truffle market.
The Wines of Piedmont
Piedmont's wine reputation rests on the Nebbiolo grape, a temperamental, late-ripening variety that produces some of Italy's most age-worthy wines. The two flagship appellations — Barolo and Barbaresco — are both made from 100% Nebbiolo, but they differ in character, terroir, and tradition.
Barolo — The King of Wines
Barolo, often called "the King of Wines and the Wine of Kings," comes from eleven communes in the Langhe hills south of Alba. The best examples — from vineyards like Cannubi, Brunate, Monfortino, and Vigna Rionda — can age for decades, developing extraordinary complexity of tar, roses, dried cherry, leather, and truffle. Barolo must age for a minimum of 38 months (18 in oak), and Riserva for 62 months. Young Barolo can be tannic and austere; with age, it softens into one of the world's most rewarding wines. Key villages include Barolo, La Morra, Castiglione Falletto, Serralunga d'Alba, and Monforte d'Alba — each producing wines with distinct personalities shaped by their unique soil compositions of Tortonian and Helvetian marl.
Barbaresco — The Queen
Barbaresco, produced in just three communes (Barbaresco, Neive, and Treiso) northeast of Alba, is often described as more elegant and approachable than Barolo, though the best examples are every bit as complex. The legendary producer Angelo Gaja put Barbaresco on the global stage in the 1970s with single-vineyard wines that commanded Barolo prices. Barbaresco requires 26 months of ageing (9 in oak), meaning it reaches the market a year earlier than Barolo. The Rabajà, Asili, and Martinenga vineyards are considered among the finest.
Beyond Nebbiolo
Piedmont's wine diversity extends far beyond its two famous reds. Barbera d'Asti and Barbera d'Alba are the everyday wines of the region — vibrant, cherry-rich, and excellent with food. Dolcetto d'Alba (despite its name meaning "little sweet one") is dry and fruity, perfect for weeknight pasta. Moscato d'Asti, a gently sparkling, low-alcohol sweet wine from the Asti area, is one of Italy's most refreshing aperitifs and a natural pairing with desserts. Arneis, from the Roero hills, is Piedmont's finest white wine — floral, mineral, and increasingly fashionable. Gavi (Cortese grape) from the southeastern hills offers crisp, citrus-driven whites ideal with fish and light antipasti.
Alba White Truffles — The World's Most Precious Fungus
The white truffle of Alba (Tuber magnatum pico) is the single most expensive food ingredient in the world, regularly selling for €3,000–€5,000 per kilogram — and exceptional specimens at auction have fetched over €100,000. Unlike black truffles, white truffles cannot be cultivated; they must be hunted in the wild by trained dogs (pigs were used historically but are now banned) in the oak, hazel, poplar, and linden forests of the Langhe, Roero, and Monferrato hills.
The season runs from late September to December, peaking in October and November. During this period, Alba hosts the Fiera Internazionale del Tartufo Bianco d'Alba — the International White Truffle Fair — which has run every year since 1929. The fair takes over Alba's historic centre on weekends, featuring a truffle market where certified vendors sell fresh truffles graded by size, aroma, and condition. There are also cooking demonstrations, wine tastings, truffle-pairing dinners, an international truffle auction (broadcast globally), and the Palio degli Asini — a donkey palio that good-naturedly parodies Siena's famous horse race.
White truffles are never cooked. They are shaved raw over dishes at the last moment — typically tajarin (thin egg pasta), fonduta (Piedmontese cheese fondue made with Fontina), fried eggs, risotto, or raw beef tartare. The aroma — a heady mix of garlic, honey, earth, and musk — is intoxicating and ephemeral. A single truffle begins losing its perfume within days of harvest, which is why the experience of eating freshly shaved white truffle in Alba, at the source, is incomparable.
Essential Piedmontese Dishes
Piedmontese cuisine is comfort food elevated to high art. Rooted in the agricultural calendar and the produce of the region's hills, plains, and mountains, it emphasises butter, cream, and eggs over the olive oil and tomatoes of southern Italy. Here are the dishes you must try:
Antipasti
- Vitello tonnato — Thin slices of cold poached veal blanketed in a creamy sauce of puréed tuna, capers, anchovies, and mayonnaise. It sounds unlikely. It's extraordinary. A staple of every Piedmontese menu, especially in summer.
- Carne cruda all'albese — Raw beef tartare, hand-chopped (never minced), dressed with lemon, olive oil, and in season, shaved white truffle. Use Piedmontese Fassone beef — a lean, tender breed raised in the region.
- Peperoni con bagna cauda — Roasted peppers drizzled with bagna cauda sauce. Rich, smoky, anchovy-salty. The perfect bar snack with a glass of Barbera.
- Insalata russa — A Piedmontese-Russian hybrid of diced vegetables in mayonnaise that has become an Italian classic. Turin claims its invention through 19th-century Savoy-era connections with Russia.
Bagna Cauda — The Communal Ritual
Bagna cauda (literally "hot bath") is Piedmont's most iconic communal dish. A warm dip of olive oil, butter, garlic, and anchovies is kept bubbling in individual terracotta pots (fojòt) over a candle flame, while diners dip raw and cooked vegetables — cardoons (the classic), raw peppers, cauliflower, Jerusalem artichokes, endive, and beetroot. It's traditionally eaten in autumn and winter, often as the centrepiece of a long, convivial dinner. The garlic is soaked in milk first to mellow its bite. Bagna cauda dinners — gregarious, multi-hour affairs — are a highlight of Piedmontese social life.
Primi (First Courses)
- Agnolotti del plin — Tiny, hand-pinched pasta parcels filled with roasted meat (typically a mix of veal, pork, and rabbit), served in a butter and sage sauce, in meat broth, or simply "al tovagliolo" (drained and served on a napkin). The "plin" (pinch) that seals each agnolotto is a mark of handcraft. This is Piedmont's signature pasta.
- Tajarin — Extremely thin egg-yolk-rich tagliatelle, golden in colour, traditionally served with a butter and sage sauce or a meat ragù. During truffle season, tajarin al tartufo bianco is the ultimate Piedmontese first course — simply dressed with butter and topped with generous shavings of white truffle.
- Risotto al Barolo — Carnaroli rice (grown in the Vercelli and Novara plains — Piedmont produces more than half of Italy's rice) slow-cooked with Barolo wine until deep purple. Rich, earthy, and wintry.
- Paniscia — A hearty rice dish from Novara with beans, salami, vegetables, and red wine. Essentially a risotto crossed with a minestrone — filling, unpretentious, and deeply satisfying.
Secondi (Main Courses)
- Bollito misto — A grand platter of boiled meats (beef brisket, veal tongue, cotechino sausage, capon, calf's head) served with an array of traditional sauces: salsa verde (parsley and anchovy), salsa rossa (tomato and pepper), cognà (a must-grape relish), and mostarda (candied fruit in mustard syrup). A bollito misto in a traditional Piedmontese restaurant can feature seven or more cuts, carved tableside from a rolling trolley. It's a winter ritual.
- Brasato al Barolo — Beef braised slowly in Barolo wine with aromatics until fall-apart tender. The sauce, reduced to a glossy intensity, captures the wine's tannin and fruit. Rich, celebratory, and worth every calorie.
- Fritto misto alla piemontese — Not a simple plate of fried food but an extravagant procession of sweet and savoury items: lamb cutlets, brain, liver, sausage, vegetables, semolina, apple fritters, and amaretti cookies — all battered and fried. Can include over a dozen components. It's a dying art, preserved by a handful of traditional restaurants.
Chocolate & Turin's Café Culture
Turin is one of Europe's great chocolate cities. The Savoy court's 18th-century love of drinking chocolate gave birth to a tradition that endures today. Gianduja — the blend of roasted Tonda Gentile hazelnuts with chocolate — was invented in Turin during the Napoleonic blockades when cocoa was scarce and hazelnuts were abundant. The result was a revelation: the iconic giandujotto, a foil-wrapped, boat-shaped chocolate, has been produced since 1865 and remains Turin's edible souvenir.
Turin's historic cafés are temples of this tradition. Caffè Al Bicerin, in business since 1763, serves the drink that gives it its name: bicerin, a layered glass of espresso, drinking chocolate, and fresh cream that is served unstirrred so the layers mingle as you drink. Caffè Torino on Piazza San Carlo, Baratti & Milano in the Galleria Subalpina, and Fiorio on Via Po all preserve the atmosphere of the Risorgimento era, when Italian unification was plotted over cups of chocolate. During the Christmas season, Turin's cioccolatieri produce over 80,000 kilograms of chocolate — making the city Italy's undisputed chocolate capital.
The Slow Food Movement
In 1986, Carlo Petrini founded the Slow Food movement in the Piedmontese town of Bra, initially as a protest against the opening of a McDonald's near Rome's Spanish Steps. The movement has since grown into a global organisation present in 160 countries, dedicated to preserving traditional and regional cuisine, encouraging farming of plants, seeds, and livestock characteristic of local ecosystems, and promoting small-scale, sustainable food production.
Bra hosts the University of Gastronomic Sciences (founded 2004), the world's first academic institution dedicated to food studies, attracting students from around the globe. Every two years, Bra also hosts Cheese, an international festival celebrating raw-milk cheeses and artisanal dairy producers. Turin hosts Salone del Gusto and Terra Madre — massive food exhibitions that bring together producers, chefs, and food activists from every continent.
Piedmont's Slow Food heritage means that even humble trattorias tend to source locally, cook seasonally, and maintain standards that would qualify as "farm-to-table" elsewhere but here are simply how things have always been done.
Where to Eat — Recommendations by Area
Turin
Start your morning with a bicerin at Caffè Al Bicerin (Piazza della Consolata 5 — cash only, no reservations). For lunch, try the Quadrilatero Romano neighbourhood, where trattorias and wine bars cluster around the old market streets. Porta Palazzo, Europe's largest open-air market, is a sensory overload of produce, cheese, and street food. For a fine-dining experience, Del Cambio (Piazza Carignano 2 — in continuous operation since 1757, where Cavour dined) serves refined Piedmontese cuisine in rooms dripping with gilded stucco.
Alba & the Langhe
Alba is Piedmont's gastronomic epicentre. The town's restaurants lean heavily on truffles, Barolo, and handmade pasta. Beyond fine dining, the Langhe villages hide exceptional trattorias serving multi-course Piedmontese menus at prices that would be unthinkable in major cities. Villa Crespi on Lake Orta, helmed by Chef Antonino Cannavacciuolo, holds 2 Michelin stars and is widely considered one of the best restaurants in Italy — book months ahead.
What to Bring Home
- Giandujotti from Guido Gobino or Peyrano (Turin)
- Hazelnuts — Tonda Gentile delle Langhe (roasted or in paste)
- Barolo or Barbaresco — visit a producer and ship a case home
- Grissini — traditional hand-stretched breadsticks, originated in Turin
- Agnolotti — some delis sell vacuum-packed fresh pasta for travel
- Bagna cauda mix — jarred anchovy-garlic base for recreating the dish at home
Frequently Asked Questions
What food is Piedmont famous for?
Where is the best place to eat in Piedmont?
When is the Alba truffle festival?
← Back to Eco Hotels in Piedmont · Read next: Top Things to Do in Piedmont →