Provenance Technique Library
Turin, · Piedmont Techniques
4 techniques from Turin, · Piedmont cuisine
Bicerin Torinese
Turin, Piedmont
Turin's iconic layered hot drink: a tall glass presenting three distinct, un-stirred layers — espresso at the bottom, hot chocolate in the middle, and a collar of whipped cream or whole cream floating on top. Created at the Caffè Al Bicerin in Turin in 1763 and unchanged since. The name 'bicerin' (Piedmontese for 'small glass') refers to the specific thick, straight-sided glass in which it is served. Drinking it: the layers are never stirred — the experience is the succession of cream, chocolate, and coffee on the palate.
Finanziera — Giblets and Sweetbreads in a Madeira Sauce
Turin, Piedmont — specifically associated with the restaurants and court kitchens of 19th-century Savoy Turin. The Savoy royal family's wealth created a market for elaborate preparations that used the most technically demanding ingredients and methods.
Finanziera is the aristocratic giblet preparation of Turin, associated with the Savoy royal court and the wealthy banking families (finanzieri) of 19th-century Piedmont. It is a complex preparation of mixed organ meats and offcuts — veal sweetbreads, chicken giblets, combs and wattles, ox kidneys, mushrooms, and small fried meatballs — combined in a reduced Madeira or Marsala wine sauce with capers, olives, and pickled vegetables. It is simultaneously a demonstration of culinary technique (the precision required to prepare each element separately before combining) and a celebration of the quinto quarto. It is one of the most technically demanding traditional preparations of the Italian repertoire.
Gianduiotto — Hazelnut Chocolate of Turin
Turin, Piedmont — created in 1865 by the confectioner Paul Caffarel at the Turin Carnival. Named after Gianduja, the traditional Carnival mask of Piedmont. The Tonda Gentile delle Langhe hazelnut has been cultivated in the Langhe hills since the medieval period and the confectionery tradition of Turin dates to the Savoy court.
Gianduiotto is the defining confection of Turin: a small, distinctive boat-shaped chocolate made from gianduia — a paste of Piedmontese Tonda Gentile delle Langhe hazelnuts ground with sugar and blended with dark chocolate — moulded into the boat shape and wrapped in gold foil. Created in 1865 during the Turin Carnival by Caffarel (the oldest confectionery firm still in production), it is considered the first individually wrapped chocolate in history. The gianduia base — approximately equal parts hazelnut paste and chocolate — produces a flavour that is simultaneously chocolate and hazelnut: neither predominates, and the resulting taste is more complex than either component alone.
Gianduiotto Torinese al Nocciola Piemonte
Turin, Piedmont
Turin's emblematic chocolate-hazelnut confection — the world's first individually wrapped chocolate, created in 1865 during Lent when cacao was in short supply and ground Langhe hazelnuts were used to extend the chocolate. The gianduiotto's shape (a flattened boat or upturned gondola) is created by extruding the paste with a special nozzle, not moulding. The paste is a specific combination of cacao, sugar, cocoa butter, and finely ground Tonda Gentile Trilobata hazelnut (the Langhe variety, IGP). The hazelnut must be minimum 30% by weight — less and it's just chocolate with a hazelnut note.