Marco Giachello, a real chef from Piedmont

The chef is an artist who shapes nature's ingredients into dishes that are deeply rooted in their territory. Preserving the original flavors and atmospheres has always been an important concept in Italian cuisine and even more in Piedmont where Slow Food was born.

The bond between the chef and his/her home region is vital because it emphasizes how local specialties vary town to town around the year and how they can be developed to adapt to a more modern taste.

Chef Marco Giachello shaving white truffles over his egg tajarin

White Truffles

We are always bragging about Piedmont and Turin, our royal lifestyle made of decadent chocolate, cashmere sweaters, designer's cars and long tradition slow food cuisine. 

It is true, but after all, despite our totally understated regional pride and local promotion, we can 😎

Turin Chefs' Association

As the very first Italian capital, Turin also boasts the very first Italian association of chefs, cooks and kitchen professionals, from the HTM/cooking students to the restaurant owners. Founded in 1722, Associazone Cuochi Torino (ACT) is even older than the national Italian Cooks Federation (F.I.C.) (Italy got united into a whole kingdom in 1861) and back then, it already included women!
In the past centuries, wealthy families, especially the aristocrats, used to hire their own chefs/cooks and dine in their palazzos while restaurants, as we know them today, were not fashionable yet and cooking was a different profession.

Chef Giachello's research of flavors

Restaurant La Smarrita is a culinary symbol in Turin; located in Palazzo Salmatoris in the super central Piazza Carlo Alberto, this is where the Kingdom of Italy was born in 1861 and where Count Camillo Benso of Cavour, the first Italian Prime Minister, had his office. In fact, he just needed to cross the square to get to Palazzo Carignano, the very first Italian Parliament.

Today, La Smarrita strives to keep the Langhe culinary traditions alive in the heart Turin offering authentic seasonal specialties paired with the best wines of small selected local producers. 

The commander in chief of the kitchen is Chef Marco Giachello, a Turinese at heart, or "DOC" as you would say in Italian, borrowing the high quality certification of Italian wines (controlled designation of origin).

Chef Giachello majored in cooking from high school and worked his culinary career up from the lower levels of restaurant kitchens, to the top of the best Turin's restaurants. 

His passion for food and local products was shaped by his maternal grandmother, nonna Teresa who just like his mom, was a very skilled cook. Growing up, Marco would spend the summer in the Langhe wine district at his maternal grandparents' who had a small vineyard, tiny orchard and a small vegetable garden. Most of what they cooked and ate came directly from their land and nonna Teresa would craft amazing traditional meals!