Turinepi21

 Just one week to our 8th edition of Turin Epicurean Capital, a second virtual edition but in a new form!

August in Turin

Before the 2008 economical crisis Turin, just like any other Italian city looked deserted, especially on August 15 or Ferragosto!

To get a better idea of what this all Italian Mid-August phenomenon is like, and especially if you love the Italian culture and language, we invite you all to watch The Mid-August Lunch:

Ramassin

Without any doubt one of the Piedmont's culinay joys are our ramassin plums 😋

These super sweet and aromatic tiny plums are native of southwest Piedmont which means you will not be able to enjoy them outside our cool region... 😎

ramassins and Alessi bird set designed in Piedmont courtesy of Valentina from Chivasso

TurinEpi18 cooking class

The cooking class of the fifth edition of Turin Epicurean Capital was held at Associazione Culturale Qubi and led by Margherita Frari.

For this cooking class Margherita designed a program based on chocolate as Turin and Piedmont are the chocolate heart of Europe.

Photo by Alberto Bonis

5 Turin tips

We are often asked the following questions about how to organize your trip over to Turin so today, we are answering to all of you!

Palazzo Scaglia di Verrua, Renaissance in Turin, see if you can find it!

nocciolini di Chivasso

Only three ingredients are needed to make this traditional tiny amaretto-shaped cookies from Chivasso, a small town in the Canavese area, 13 minutes by train north of Turin.

super tiny and delicious nocciolini di Chivasso

Executive Hotel: an art gallery

In 2017 Turin Epicurean Capital has grown up, we needed a new partner hotel to host our guests, this is how we got to collaborate with Best Western Plus Executive Hotel and Suites in Via Nizza 28.

As always we like to rely on hotels with very high standards that are also conveniently located downtown so that our guests can just walk everywhere, because this is the most immediate way to get to know Turin.

the Executive Hotel internal hall is an informal meeting space

Ivrea's cookies

Eporediesi

For all lovers of chocolate and hazelnuts out there, here's one more recipe from Piedmont. Eporediesi are the traditional cookies from Ivrea, a small town just 40min driving from Turin, famous for its carnival, tomini cheese and fairy tale wine: Erbaluce di Caluso - the only Italian DOCG wine in all 4 of its variants!

Bicciolani from Vercelli

Piedmont is famous for its many local cookies, some expanded over the regional borders and have acquired a national recognition becoming regulars on all Italian tables, others are still pretty much connected to their locality and you will find them only where they are produced.

artisan bicciolani

Mardi Gras fritters

Very few foods have a huge comforting power: home made Carnival fritters sprinkled with powder sugar are one of those, at least to all Italians 😍

In fact, Carnival like any other holiday is connected to a culinary specialty and wherever you'll go, in Italy as well as, in many other Latin countries, you'll find these fritters.

5 Holiday wines

For all our friends, Piedmont lovers and Italian wine fans here's our short list to make any celebration the best with our Piedmont wines!
These are THE wines we drink in our homes with our families and friends over the Holidays and to celebrate our most important days, so take note and look them up at your local wine shop. Remember to stock up on a few bottles next time you hop over to Piedmont 😉

brutti ma buoni

Brutti ma Buoni or ugly but good in Italian are basically hazelnut meringue cookies often eaten during the Holidays.

As they are very easy to make and to modify they come in many variants all around the Italian boot and you can further personalize our Piedmontese original recipe.

cornmeal cookies

All over northern Italy we have plenty of corn consequently, besides polenta, in Piedmont we also make traditional cookies with cornmeal, or in Italian, paste di meliga :P

delish tea flavored cornmeal cookies made by Tastinglife

Darryl's perspective on wines

This week guest post is by Darryl Baldwin who was a guest at Turin Epicurean Capital 2014.

After working in the City of London for 40 years trading, selling and marketing the whole gamut of financial instruments for various international banks, he and his wife stumbled across a piece of Paradise. It was February 2007 and he had decided the time was right for a bit of permanent R&R. Within a few months they had bought a house in Neive and properly discovered Nebbiolo. They built a grandchildren attractor (swimming pool) and within 2 years, when it was a proven success, decided to sell the house in the UK, help the kids and settle permanently in Italy. They have never looked back and are in love with the wine, the food, the culture and the family-centric approach to life. Slowly but surely they  are educating their English friends that they live in Piemonte where the best wines in Italy (if not the world) are made and not in Tuscany which is the only region they appear to know. You can follow Darryl on his blog Piemonte mio

can't get Torino out of Silvia

This guest post is by our friend Silvia Baldini, chef and owner of Strawberry and Sage. After her classical studies in Italy, a degree in architecture and graduating from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Silvia worked in advertising for 17 years. Secretly, however, she always dreamed of becoming a chef. So, she went back to school and graduated from the Cornell and French Culinary Institute in NYC with a degree in restaurant management.

She then moved to London with her husband Michele where she continued her culinary education with a Cuisine Diploma from Cordon Bleu. This is where, in the depths of a kitchen restaurant, she learned a lot and she got to fulfill one of her biggest dreams - yell “SERVICE!” in a restaurant, really, really loudly. After working at some prestigious European Michelin star restaurants, she started an event company called Strawberry and Sage: a creative food group, an outlet for her real passion: food. She now lives on the East Coast and she works on making Strawberry and Sage a dream become reality.

Silvia works with private clients, celebrities, fashion and food photographers and cook book authors. 
 She has appeared on national TV (in the US) and on cooking shows on the Food Network.  She is the Jamie Oliver’s food revolution ambassador in New Canaan Ct, she is the food contributor for the Hamlet Hub New Canaan, She has developed a series of lectures and culinary demonstrations with Analiese Paik of the Fairfield Green Food Guide to promote and teach about local and sustainable products, and she is currently writing her first cook book, Her work has been mentioned and frequently published in Saveur, the Jamie Oliver food revolution blog, CTBites, Cottages and Gardens, Serendipity, and international magazines.