10 Reasons to vist Torino - Part 10. The Food
If you are looking for the most refined and elegant food n Italy you are at the right place. Torino and Piemonte has so much to offer that you'll regrest not having visited before.
Matteo
6/16/20262 min read
If you love handmade pasta, you'll love our Tajarin, the Piedmontese version of tagliatelle, thinner and more colorful (according to tradition, 40 egg yolks per kg of flour are needed). But don't forget that the highlight of Turin and Piedmontese cuisine is the antipasti, those delicacies that precede the main courses and are often so generous, flavorful, and abundant that you won't even be able to finish the meal.
If food is your passion, you can book my "Turin food tour." As we stroll among the Baroque buildings and narrow streets of the historic center or the San Salvario neighborhood, we'll sample some of the delicacies of local cuisine and enjoy a glass of fine local wine, not to mention chocolate, the true jewel in Turin's crown.
Italian cuisine was inscribed on the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2025. Indeed, food in Italy is of high quality everywhere, from North to South, and is based on an unrivalled multitude of local recipes and typical products, although many still identify Italian cuisine with a few specific preparations such as pasta alla carbonara, bucatini alla amatriciana, pizza, tagliatelle, lasagna, and a few others.
In Turin and Piedmont, the food is different from other regions of Italy, more “French” you might say, perhaps due to the proximity and the constant historical relationship of mutual respect and rivalry between the territories on either side of the Alps. For this reason, Turin and Piedmontese cuisine, based on peasant, bourgeois, and aristocratic traditions, is perhaps the richest and most refined of Italy's national heritage. Here you can taste "fusion" dishes that were created before the very concept of "fusion cuisine" was born, such as Vitello Tonnato, which combines Italy's finest beef (Fassone) with fish, eggs, and capers, or the Turin and Piedmontese versions of ravioli, called "agnolotti", with both meat and “light” fillings (with cheese and vegetables).
Turin and Piedmont are also the land of great roasts and braised meats. Don't get obsessed with the usual Barolo; if you love strong flavors, the braised meat is also excellent with a good Barbera d'Asti or a Nizza DOCG. Roast beef and veal is the quintessential element of Turin cuisine; they're used to make the filling for agnolotti, and their sauce is used to season them.