Food

SLOW TOUR. COOKING CLASS AND BAROLO TASTING

(Full Day | 9.30 am – 6 pm)

Are you a food and wine lover? Let us take you on an incredible journey through Piedmont’s vineyards and culinary legacy.

We offer a private cooking class with a talented chef in a small restaurant in the Langhe hills or alternatively, in a private house with an Italian mamma or nonna, who will be happy to share their stories and kitchen secrets. Between the hours of 10 am to 2 pm, you will learn how to prepare a four-course traditional Piedmont Sunday lunch. For lunch we will enjoy the delicious food we have prepared paired with exquisite local wines. During the cooking class you will enjoy a traditional “aperitivo” with a snack and white sparkling wine tasting and also take home a book of the recipes used.

After lunch we will take a leisurely stroll through a small village and then, to complete our overview of the world of Piedmont’s food and wine, we will visit a Barolo boutique wine cellar followed by a tasting of local wines including different Barolo.

PRIVATE COOKING CLASS. CHEF or MAMMA?

( 9.30 am – 3 pm)

This private cooking class was designed for food lovers. We will take you on an incredible journey through Piedmont and its amazing cuisine! Learn how to make home made pasta like tajarin and agnolotti. This exclusive hands-on class will be conducted by a chef in a local restaurant or the kitchen of a passionate Italian mamma and will include preparing a four course Sunday lunch (10 am – 2 pm). During the class you will have a traditional “aperitivo” with snack and wine tasting. For lunch we will enjoy the homemade pasta and delicious food you have prepared matched with amazing local wines. You will take home a complimentary recipe book that will allow you to reproduce the Italian Sunday lunch for your family and friends.

This private cooking class is a perfect opportunity for those who wish to have an authentic depth-in cooking experience in the heart of Piedmont.

CHEESE & WINE ADVENTURE

(Full Day | 9.30 am – 6 pm)

Piedmont boasts nine DOP (Protected Designation of Origin) cheeses and seventeen DOCG wines, therefore a day dedicated to a cheese and wine experience is essential to opening Piedmont’s culinary world in the Langhe, home to Barolo. Most of the area is covered by vines which doesn’t permit much space for grazing animals. To travel to the farms we will need to drive up into the most traditional areas of the Alta Langa. We will definitely have fun meeting the very social sheep or goats, learn about rearing animals, the raw mill cheese making process and, of course, tasting some of the delicious home made products. We will then head for a leisurely lunch in a premium restaurant with free choice from the menu. In the afternoon we will visit a family-run Dolcetto winery and after a walk in one of the highest altitude vineyards of an indigenous grape varietal, we will conclude our day with a cellar tour followed by a comprehensive wine tasting led by the winemaker himself or a family member.

CHOCOLATE TREATS & GELATO TASTING

(3 hours)

At the end of 1800, some brave young men from the Langhe hills moved to Turin to work as apprentices in the finest pastry shops in the city. A few years later they came back to their home villages with newly acquired knowledge and opened their own artisan confectionary shops with wooden shelves, white marble tablet and brass chandeliers.

We will visit one of these historical Cafes where the noble ladies came for a hot chocolate or a tea with the not too secret hope to meet a charming officer. Here we offer a chocolate tasting together with an introduction to the history of each praline, followed by a couple of Sunday traditional “bignole” pastries and a glass of a special herbal liqueur. Please don’t ask for the ingredients as the recipe is a closely guarded family secret!

No trip to Piedmont would be complete without also sampling our famous gelato. We love to have it all year round and, as the saying goes, “when in Piemonte, do as Piemontesi”! After having a tasting and a talk with the gelato master, you will be an expert and you’ll easily recognize the best “Gelaterie” all over the world.

HAZLENUT & CHOCOLATE TASTING

(3 hours)

The delicious Piedmont variety of hazelnut “Tonda Gentile” grows mosly in the Alta Langa.

The history of its cultivation is3closely linked to the confectionary industry and, in particular, to the creation of Gianduja – the fine blend of cocoa and hazlenuts. The confectioners of Turin, following the trading block imposed by Napoleon against the British, invented a new mixture of cocoa and hazlenuts which took its name from the popular Turin carnival mask “Gianduja”.

To discover the unique flavor of the “Tonda Gentile” hazelnut, we will drive up to the Alta Langa, one of the most rural and traditional parts of Piedmont, to a small family run farm where they will disclose the secrets of the cultivation, harvesting, drying and selection of this unique product and the delicious results of its amalgamation with other high quality ingredients like cocoa, cinnamon, hot chilli pepper, spices and more. After this comprehensive gourmet tasting of 100% roasted hazelnut cream paired with cheeses and jam and many different kinds of spreadable chocolate cream you will have absolutely no interest in Nutella!

Sara Matteodo