Published in Sunday Times Travel magazine, April 2004

Diners' guide to Piedmont

A road trip through the region that invented Slow Food is a feast for the senses, says William Ham Bevan

THE year of 1986 saw an event that would bring Piedmont to gastronomic prominence in the eyes of the world. The Slow Food movement was founded in the town of Bra, with the aim of countering junk food culture.

But the pleasures of eating well have been ingrained in Piedmontese culture for centuries. Its flavours are overwhelmingly rich, robust and earthy. Most celebrated of all are Piedmont’s truffles, especially the white variety found around Alba.

Other specialities include braised meats, bagna cauda (creamy broth into which raw vegetables are dipped) and fonduta, a calorific sauce made from egg yolks, Fontina cheese, butter and white truffle. The wines are similarly overwhelming: full-bodied reds such as Barolo and Barbaresco, and the sweet, sparkling Asti Spumante. Here are five of the region’s most notable restaurants.

Best for postmodernists
COMBAL.ZERO, RIVOLI
The restored baroque pile of Rivoli Castle is home to one of Italy’s most important collections of contemporary art. And if it seems jarring to see works by the likes of Gilbert and George and Jeff Koons in such a setting, finding the stark cuboid dining room of Combal.Zero next door is odder still. Here, chef Davide Scabin creates dishes that aim to challenge the palate, while still making use of traditional Piedmontese ingredients – including the ubiquitous truffle. By his own admission, some are so tricky to match with wine that he has to create his own drinks to accompany them. Mains from £16.
(Piazza Mafalda di Savoia; 00 39 01 19 56 52 25)

Best for gourmands
L’OSTU DIJ BALOSS, SALUZZO
For four centuries the capital of an independent Marquisate, the hillside town of Saluzzo warrants inclusion in any Piedmont itinerary. The cathedral, completed in 1501, is just the most ostentatious of its many historical monuments; and a visit to L’Ostu dij Baloss makes a perfect interlude to all the sightseeing. The restaurant’s strength is in mixing the sophisticated and the simple. A meal might run from an intricate goose breast salad with pomegranate, chestnuts and black truffle, to gnocchi in a simple Castelmagno sauce. One warning: there’s little on offer for vegetarians, who are at best tolerated with ill grace. Mains from £17.
(Via Gualtieri; 00 39 01 75 24 86 18)

Best for traditionalists
DA GUIDO, SAN STEFANO BELBO
A short drive from Cuneo, up roads that climb in hairpin bends around the steep terraces of vines, is the Relais San Maurizio – a hilltop monastery that has been turned into an upmarket hotel. In its vaulted cellar is the new restaurant venture of one of the region’s best-known culinary clans, the Aliciati family. Da Guido’s menu is a celebration of classic Piedmont dishes, such as rich soups of wild forest mushrooms or pasta stuffed with fragrant herbs in fonduta. The list of Piedmontese wines on offer is unrivalled. Mains from £15.
(Località San Maurizio; 00 39 01 41 84 19 00)

Best for serious foodies
UNIVERSITA DI SCIENZE GASTRONOMICHE, POLLENZO
The latest venture of the Slow Food movement is by far its most ambitious: a University of Gastronomic Science. A multi-million-pound project has been under way for the past five years to turn the dilapidated neo-gothic palace of the Agenzia di Pollenzo into its main campus, ready to accept the first intake of students in autumn 2004. The complex also plays host to a hotel, a wine bank (where examples of Italy’s best wines will be purchased and stored) and a first-class restaurant. The airy dining room is in a modern annexe of the palace, where seriously savvy gastronomes sit down to a range of dishes as eclectic as the university syllabus. Mains from £11.
(Piazza Vittorio Emanuele, Pollenzo-Bra; 00 39 01 72 45 85 11)

Best for history
RISTORANTE DEL CAMBIO, TURIN
Del Cambio is not a restaurant that shrinks from wearing its history on its sleeve. As staff will tell you, this was the regular haunt of Count Camillo Benso di Cavour, one of the main architects of Italy’s unification in the 19th century. It is here that he was reputed to have once pronounced to his dining companions: ‘Gentlemen, we have redrawn Europe. Now let’s have lunch.’ The dining room is anything but understated in its décor, with its acres of scarlet velvet drapes, ornate chandeliers and heavy gilt-edged mirrors. The food is Italian through and through: a signature dish – and melt-in-the-mouth delicious – is beef braised in Barolo wine, served with fried polenta. Expect faultless service from the liveried waiting staff. Mains from £18.
(Piazza Carignano; 00 39 01 15 43 760)