Bakery House in Turin

As the Winter Break is coming up, in case you need a break from the local panettoneand pandoro offers, finally, in Turin you'll be able to enjoy French Toasts, eggs benedict and bagels too 😋 besides naturally, a ton of other brunch and scrumptious breakfast specialties 😃

Where??? At Bakery House in Via Carlo Alberto 24 bis, right downtown 🙌

the menu options alternate with the Turin's skyline

TurinEpi18 talk show 3 and dinner

For the third talk show of the fifth edition of Turin Epicurean Capital, food historian Francine Segan directed Kelly Strobel and Alberto Semenzato of Italian At Heart and Clare Reed of Piemonte Dreams.

Lucia Hannau introducing: Alberto Semenzato, Kelly Strobel, Clare Reed and Francine Segan. Photo by Alberto Bonis

Turin Coffee festival

Coffee lovers of the world, early June, put Turin on your map for the coffee festival! 

This is a 3  day event full of caffeine where you will get the chance to get to know more about growers, blends, brands, artisans and latte art.

THE first coffee fair involving culture and tastings

bear coffee? Orso

Turin is definitely renown for its many royal coffee shops, all more or less centrally located and the total lack of international coffee shop chains. This translates into a city with only indie coffee shops... yet in terms of coffee blends and brewing methods, you will find virtually only Italian style coffees: espresso, cappuccino, latte, marocchino and bicerin, caffé ristretto and corretto or lungo.

6 Italian things born in Turin

Italy is famous for many things, yet very few people are aware that these Italian symbols in the world were actually born in Turin, first capital of Italy in 1861. 

Turin's bicerin coffee

Turin more than any other city in the world is so characterized by its own coffee culture to have its own coffee: bicerin.

The word bicerin comes from the local dialect and it means small glass because back in the 18th century it was served in a small glass and at a small price to allow everyone to enjoy it.

This decadent coffee drink includes chocolate and frothed cream and it's the evolution of "bavareisa", another 18th century popular drink, served in large round glasses and enjoyed mainly by aristocrats and wealthy people.

According to the local custom, the bicerin's identity stays in keeping the three layers of coffee, chocolate and cream unstirred so as to fully taste them separately. After all, this is not a cappuccino, a cafe' moka or any other kind of similar coffee you can enjoy anywhere else.

bicerin and the cookies to dunk: torcetti, baci di dama, canestrelli, krumiri and lady fingers

Most likely it was invented in a tiny coffee shop that today carries its name: Caffe' Al Bicerin, located in Piazza della Consolata, between Via Garibaldi and the Porta Palazzo market. This is the only place in the world where they still serve it following the original and secret recipe. 

Anywhere else in Turin, you will still be able to order it but... the ingredients, their amounts and preparation will not be exactly like the one enjoyed by the Count of Cavour, the very first Italian Prime Minister and all the other prominent people of the past like Picasso and E. Hemingway who adored it!

Lavazza: Turin coffee out of this world

Up your hand if you love Italian coffee?

Lavazza logo

How many brands of Italian coffee do you know?

Stop for a moment and think about Italians, their love for coffee and you will quickly understand how easily you can make any Italian feel at home just by offering the right cup of espresso ;)

As for you, no matter where you are, look around and chances are, you will see some Turin coffee brand. That's because after cars, sport, fashion, aperitifs and chocolate, Turin is also THE coffee trend-setting city of Italy and one of the Turin coffee brands you might happen to like and find everywhere is Lavazza. 

Bialetti's coffee revolution

Moka Express

Coffee has been an Italian passion since it arrived to Europe and everything revolving around it has become a rite.

Of all the Italian cities Turin is definitely the one where more coffee brands originated - think of Lavazza, Vergnano, Costadoro, just to name three, and where you can enjoy your coffee break in a different historical café each day of the week.

Given the local passion for coffee, it doesn't come as a surprise that even Bialetti, the famous Italian percolator brand is from Piedmont!

Now a wider industrial group, Bialetti as a brand took its name from Alfonso Bialetti, the original founder of the company in 1919, in the Northern part of Piedmont.

Following the trends, back then Mr Bialetti produced aluminum products and it was only in 1933 that he completed Luigi Da Ponte's design for a modern stove-top coffee maker.

Turin for coffee lovers

Some say you can tell the real soul of a city by the local habits and how the locals spend their free time. If it is true then, Turin's soul is in its cafés and its love for coffee and hot chocolate.

In fact, as a typical 18th century city, Turin has always had the bug for coffee, coffee houses and even chocolate houses. Here, intellectuals, politicians and authors have always enjoyed their espresso cups, bicerin or even only the velvety quiet of the café to regroup their ideas.
Turin's deep love for coffee is reinstated by the different Italian coffee brands founded in the city (e.g.: Lavazza, Vergnano, Costadoro) and even Bialetti, the famous Italian percolator, was invented in Piedmont!
Many cultures in the world definitely share the coffee rite and many other Italian cities are famous for their cafés, however, only Turin really offers so many opportunities to enjoy coffee in a full royal way!

Caffé Mulassano in Piazza Castello