If you strap on your skis in the Alps and head straight
down the mountains, you'll find yourself
in the fertile plains of Piedmont.
This region, tucked into the northern corner of Italy,
is a wonder, offering up some of the best produce in the world,
from exquisite white truffles
to rice for risotto and the finest wines.
It's incredible how really Barolo,
you put it in the glass, and in ten minutes it's changed completely.
The people here are fuelled
by passion and ambition.
They just don't like to shout about it.
Oh, my God!
I'm Stanley Tucci,
I'm Italian on both sides,
and I'm travelling across Italy to discover how the food
in each of this country's 20 regions
is as unique as the people and their past.
SHE SPEAKS ITALIAN
It resurrects a dead person.
Piedmont's a place that's always innovative.
You have to be a little bit... Crazy.
Yes.
Here, you have to expect the unexpected...
..and come at things a little differently,
to unearth its real treasures.
Italy has a reputation for coffee,
but it's taken to another level in Turin.
Its graceful squares and elegant buildings are the perfect setting
to linger over something potent and warming.
If you squint, you could even imagine yourself in Paris.
And that's no accident.
Turin is the capital of Piedmont,
a region in the extreme northwest of Italy,
directly on the border with France.
Having such a larger-than-life neighbour has left its mark.
French ideas, customs and food are everywhere.
But, if there's a drink that sums it up,
it's this - bicerin -
a potion that's been all the rage since the 1760s.
Can I put my spoon in it?
I know that sounds like a naughty question.
That's really good.
It's in three layers.
Coffee, chocolate, cream.
Different temperatures.
The French may have introduced chocolate to Turin,
but only Italians could have come up with a way to suspend
three ingredients like this.
Bicerin packs a powerful punch.
Just the stuff to fuel revolutions.
One of its greatest fans was a 19th century Turin aristocrat
with a big idea.
Food writer and local historian Paolo Vizzari
has agreed to fill me in on the details.
So good to see you.
Well, we've got a nice day for it.
So tell me about that guy.
Camillo Benso, Conte di Cavour.
He was the politician behind the Italian Unification.
Before unification, modern Italy, as we know it, didn't exist.
Instead, it was a patchwork of dukedoms and kingdoms
with the Spanish controlling the south
and the Austrians, the northeast.
The kingdom of Sardinia that ruled Piedmont
led the fight to throw out the foreign powers
and build an Italy run by Italians.
What year is this now?
1861. '61.
And Turin then becomes its first capital
for, like, a minute and a half or something.
Yeah, something like that.
But we still have a huge strength of faith, especially
in the feeling of people.
Turin may have lost out to Rome in the long run,
but during its time as the capital,
Italy became a modern democratic nation
for the first time in history.
This used to be the very first Italian parliament.
And Cavour, Italy's first prime minister,
had good reason for choosing this location
for the centre of government.
In front of the parliament, Cavour had his favourite restaurant.
Look at the distance!
That's no more than 30 yards.
I see we have the same priorities.
Ristorante Del Cambio first began serving Turin's elite back in 1757,
and its doors have been open ever since.
Let's see. Oh, it's locked!
Oh, well, we'll have to go get some pizza.
Actually, there's a wonderful Chinese restaurant
around the corner.
Luckily, the staff took pity on us,
and we get in before the lunch rush.
Welcome to Versailles.
It's a time warp, isn't it?
And this is Cavour's table.
Every day, he used to have lunch in that seat.
And from there, he could see
if his assistant was waving his handkerchief from the balcony,
which was the signal that he had to go back...
He had to go back, because he would just stay here.
Yeah, yeah. For hours.
My agent does that, too.
Here, tradition is everything.
But Del Cambio's head chef, Matteo Baronetto,
has made it his mission to drag this historical landmark
into the 21st century, while still preserving the essence
of what makes the restaurant unique.
Matteo... How are you? Stanley.
It's a high-wire balancing act
that's earned him a Michelin star.
Si.
Matteo's not your typical chef.
I can see that. Yes.
OK. Enjoy.
Foie gras is served with a typically Italian vegetable,
cavolo nero, black kale.
Wow.
I don't have anything to say.
It's incredible.
It's an amazing mix of flavours. Yes. The acidity, the sweetness.
I think it's a good symbol for Torino because it's super French
in the base, but then... Then it becomes Italian.
Matteo's unique take on Piedmontese cuisine pulls in Turin's chic crowd.
In the 19th century, Cavour was a fan of aristocratic French food,
but he also loved more homey regional dishes.
His favourite was a Piedmontese classic - finanziera -
a stew made from the cheaper parts of animals.
Veal brain?
The testicles! The balls, yes.
All right.
The spine. Yeah.
Offals, besides foie gras, were not that used in the normal food.
So this used to be more regional food and workers' food.
Peasant food? Peasant food.
Finanziera is so associated with Cavour in this restaurant
that Matteo can't take it off the menu.
It's almost a rough ragout.
That's it? It's like the opposite of what people try to do now.
They try to hide it.
You must do a taste. Yeah. Let's go.
First up, the traditional finanziera.
This is really delicious, and delicate
because you think it's not going to be delicate.
That's also why Cavour loved this kind of dishes,
because he was grown up with French palate
but, in the end, he could recognise how delicate it was.
Now, Matteo's reinvention.
Dip in the sauce and you taste. OK.
I was afraid of the testicles, but I'm not now.
They're absolutely delicious.
I have to say, I love offal, I do.
But even, even I was a little like...
It is really, really delicious.
That kidney. Yeah.
I love it. Oh, my God! I love it.
In these dishes that Cavour loved,
we find the contradictions of Italy's birth.
Cavour thought French and ate French
but he also believed in Piedmont and Italy
and he loved the regional food.
You're amazing!
Amazing. Thank you so much.
You're incredible. Grazie.
Piedmont has many firsts to its name.
It's the birthplace of modern Italy,
and Turin was its first capital.
But now I'm going to explore another first - a food first.
So I'm heading to the University of Gastronomic Sciences,
which is run by The Slow Food Movement.
The genesis of The Slow Food Movement was when they opened
a McDonald's at the Spanish Steps in Rome in the 1980s,
and a group of people protested.
And that was the beginning of the movement.
It has, without question,
significantly changed the world of food, as we know it.
The campus is an hour south of Turin in the small town of Pollenzo.
And when I say small, I mean small...like, tiny.
Could we go on smaller streets?
It's like a test.
What an amazing spot!
This is clearly not your average college campus.
Students here get to study in a 19th century Gothic palace,
originally built for Piedmont's royal family.
All right, let's go.
I'm meeting Carlo Petrini, the founder of the university
and creator of The Slow Food Movement.
You might say a real life Caped Crusader.
Slow Food's mission is to fight against bland, industrialised food.
The university teaches the value of regional specialties
from olive oil to wine.
It's all about savouring - food, drink, company -
the wonderful ritual of eating.
I've come back to Turin to see Slow Food's philosophy in action
and understand the movement's wider impact
across this region and beyond.
Hi. Hi.
Nice to meet you. I'm Carlo. Welcome to Piola da Celso.
Grazie. Hello. Elisabetta.
Elisabetta. Elisabetta.
Piola da Celso is a family-run business.
Elisabetta does the cooking
and her son Carlo serves the customers.
Today, Elisabetta is making a Piedmontese specialty -
bagna cauda - a warm sauce made from anchovies and garlic
that you dip vegetables into.
It's a dish that a few years ago was in danger
of disappearing from restaurants.
Bagna cauda is a traditional dish,
and now everyone wants to eat
something that is very traditional.
Is that because of The Slow Food Movement?
I've been told Elisabetta's bagna cauda is the best in town.
Where did bagna cauda come from?
It was for poor people because anchovies with salt
were very, very cheap.
And it gives an incredible flavour too, I mean...
Incredible flavour and incredible breath.
Bad breath? Oh, yes, yes.
The garlic kills almost everyone you can have in front of you.
Well, it wouldn't be the first time I've ended up reeking of garlic!
The crew will just have to put up with it.
There are a lot of anchovies. I noticed.
I don't think there are any more left in the ocean!
It's a very particular dish.
You can find it only in Piedmont
and not in every restaurant. It's very rare.
Yeah.
SHE SPEAKS ITALIAN
It resurrects a dead person?
If you want to do it, you just have to put some energy.
Finished?
Oh, all right.
Elisabetta cooks everything herself fresh every day.
But it seems embracing the traditional means also doing
without modern appliances.
Si, I would love it.
My new favourite word!
Mm.
Oh, my God!
That was amazing.
Si.
Mm.
If I smell of garlic, I don't care.
Well, I'm starving.
Is the chef good? Yes.
The classic, if slightly unusual combination of veal
with a tuna and caper sauce.
Meat-filled ravioli, bathed in roasting juices,
called agnolotti.
Oh, my God!
Wow. Wow.
And finally, the local specialty -
roasted shoulder of veal.
SHE SPEAKS ITALIAN
It's like 11 out of 10.
It's so good. You are very kind.
No, I'm not kind.
Well, I'm not being kind.
In Piedmont, traditional regional food is very much alive and well.
She should be.
It's all about passion. Yeah.
Go on, now.
What pizza is to Naples,
risotto is to Piedmont.
Half the rice grown in the country comes from this region.
It thrives on flood plains in the Po River Valley,
northeast of Turin, where it's irrigated by melting glacial water
from the Alps.
The town of Vercelli is Italy's rice capital,
with the risottorie, places specialising in risotto everywhere.
But I've heard the best one is rather surprisingly
hiding at the back of a 1960s hotel.
There it is.
Unassuming is the word.
Bongiorno. Bongiorno.
Thank you.
Brothers Christian and Manuel Costardi pay homage to rice,
serving it in modern, inventive ways to diners, who travelled the world
to taste their risotto.
We start with the rice.
This is your rice. Yeah.
This is, like, a selection that we do with a farm
close to Vercelli, who have the best rice for risotto.
It is carnaroli,
and we do the roasting of the rice.
It's one of the most important procedures for the risotto.
We add salt and pepper.
You're, like, toasting it almost, right? Yes.
The only time that you can give flavour to the rice,
after you give flavour to the risotto. We have vegetable stock.
Vegetable stock? Yes.
Onion, carrots, celery. Yeah.
The Costardi brothers celebrate
the very best of Piedmont's local produce.
Their signature dish is a risotto
made with Lavazza coffee, a beer reduction, and Grana Padano cheese.
And the risotto we do now is a tribute to Italy.
And what we want to do is to bring
four of the most important ingredients
and have everything in a dish.
Are you both from this area? Yeah.
We are born in Vercelli.
The hotel was built by our grandparents in 1967.
In 2005, we decided to open our restaurant
to try to do something new.
We are born the idea to have 22 different risotto on the menu.
Christian and Manuel's restaurant is a million miles away
from a traditional risottoria,
which usually have only one or two
classic cheese or mushroom risottos on the menu.
The brothers' inventive approach has earned them a Michelin star.
You are experimenting all the time. Yes.
We like to take inspiration from what happened in our life.
From music, from television, from cinema,
from art, from everything.
We'll never forget what we have outside our windows,
what we have around us, and the rice and the territory
and Piedmont is very important for us.
For this risotto is a Grana Padano cream.
Oh, nice.
And after, we have the powder of coffee.
This is a coffee that arrived from Ethiopia.
Oh, yeah. Ooh, yeah.
The coffee idea arrived because I love the coffee.
What we try with each dish that we produce
is to block what is in your mind normally, click on something
of your past, in your memory.
OK, this is unsalted butter.
Unsalted, OK.
Easy.
You try?
Not like that. It's not difficult.
It's not?
No. You do it.
That's so cool.
These tins are born in tribute to Andy Warhol. Andy Warhol, yes.
This is a reduction of beer.
Just beer? Just use the sugar of the beer.
It's like... It's like caramel.
Yes.
Whoa!
And when the mix from the beer,
coffee and cheese in the mouth
is like fresh mushroom.
Now we add the Grana Padano cream on top.
This is completely changing everything I thought about risotto.
Coffee on top, and the beer on at the end.
What kind of spoon you want?
I'll take that one. OK. Yeah. Thank you.
That's a revelation.
That's, like, 1,000 things.
Yes. In one can.
Yes. Wow!
Also, the way you cook the risotto, it's so nice and firm.
It's very important to have the flavour of the rice.
You have to buy it and understand what is inside.
That's unbelievable. You're not doing it in Milan,
you're not doing it in Turin, you're not doing it in Florence,
you're doing it here where you grew up.
People say we are crazy.
Not only people outside, but also our grandma.
Yeah, she said you were crazy.
Yeah. When we begin, our grandma say...
The brothers' love of rice also inspires their dessert menu.
And Manuel's signature dish is Rice Field In Winter.
When started this dish, I go in the rice field for taste.
The ground, for smell the ground.
We use chestnut cream.
What's that?
Is a biscuit of rice flour and chocolate.
We add some of the crispy rice.
Like what I used to have for breakfast as a kid.
Not as good as that, but...yeah.
And the wintertime for us
is one of the most poetic moment
of the year.
This is cool.
You have to be a little bit...
Crazy. Yes.
Some liquid nitrogen.
So what did he put in there?
And then you're freezing it.
Like snow.
That's cool.
So now it's snowing.
That's genius.
A morning in Vercelli.
Yeah. Yeah. I love it!
You eat it with this?
Yeah.
That's great.
It's not super sweet.
I'm going to have it in a cone.
Yeah.
Thank you. Goddammit!
Guys... How come I never met you before?
My whole life wasted.
If you visit Piedmont, there's something that grows here
that's so special you have to try it -
the white truffle.
It's so coveted that it's sold on the market
and at charity auctions for huge sums of money.
This season's largest white truffles are selling to bidders
from Italy and around the world.
The auctioneer is my friend from Turin, food writer Paolo Vizzari.
He's got his work cut out for him.
Bids for the delicate fungi come in thick and fast.
Ah-yo! Oh-yo.
Luckily, the buyer isn't put off.
The white truffle's value seems to be pretty much indestructible.
Last up, a truffle weighing close to 2lb,
pulling in bidders from Moscow and Hong Kong.
That's $114,000!
When it comes to price, white truffles from Piedmont
are in a league of their own.
Nice to see you again. Nice to see you again.
Would any other truffle from any other part of Italy
garner that much attention, and would they get that much money?
No. I don't think so.
In the end, it's all about the nature around here. Yeah.
I couldn't believe it, though, when the guy dropped the truffle.
That was a chilling moment.
There was one little piece left on the floor. I saw it.
Did you pick it? No, no. I was too embarrassed.
Because it's probably like 20 grand.
Yeah, I know. That was like... Yeah.
While the more common black truffle can be farmed,
white truffles grow only in the wild.
So auction houses rely on truffle hunters to source the white gold
in the forests of the Langhe,
an area of rolling hills 40 miles south of Turin.
Here, conditions are perfect.
Warm air from the south pushes back
cold currents from the Alps, and summer rainfall feeds
the mineral-rich soil.
White truffles sell for extraordinary amounts of money
because they're so hard to find,
even if you know what you're doing.
I'm going to meet a truffle hunter
and we're going to catch a big one.
The competition between truffle hunters is intense,
and they're obsessed with guarding their secrets.
But I'm meeting someone who's agreed
to show me some of what he knows.
This is going to be interesting.
OK. Here we go.
Ciao. Stanley.
Igor Bianchi is known as the king of truffle hunters.
Hi.
Border collie? Border collie.
Well, shall we?
Let's go.
So beautiful.
Lola and Susie have been trained since they were puppies
to detect the truffle's unique scent.
Igor once found a monster truffle,
weighing just over 2lb,
so you never know what we might find today.
For all of Igor's expertise,
the last few years have been tough for truffle hunters.
Climate change has meant less summer rainfall, hence fewer truffles.
Yeah.
It seems that the truffles are being shy today.
With truffles harder to find, they're becoming
more precious than ever.
Luckily for me, Igor did find a truffle yesterday,
and he wants to cook up a classic truffle dish in his garage.
Oh, my God!
No, no, no, no.
Nothing else in the world is like that.
Simple recipes are best
when it comes to showing off the truffle's flavour.
So Igor's cooking me eggs, fried in butter,
topped with shaved truffle.
Ah, I see!
Mm.
It has to...
Despite all the razzmatazz and velvet cushions,
when it comes down to it,
white truffles are really a simple, earthy pleasure.
Straight from Mother Nature.
Hey?
In the Langhe, I'm on the trail of another coveted treat
that comes from this land of coveted treats.
So beautiful.
Due to a unique combination of geography and climate,
these hills are home not only to the white truffle,
but also one of Italy's most celebrated red wines.
Giulia Negri is the first person in her family to make Barolo
from vines on this estate.
So you inherited this place from your family? Yes.
They were a big family of engineers from Torino,
and they bought it in 1870...
Yeah.
These slopes get a lot of sun, although not today,
making them perfect for growing Nebbiolo,
a thin-skinned grape that's hard to cultivate outside this region.
It's the only grape that can be used to make Barolo.
So you have how many hectares of...?
We have six hectares and a half of vineyards.
So they are all around here, the house and the forest.
It's among the last forests in all the Barolo area.
Oh, really? And this is why we're really protecting it a lot.
Whereas a lot of winemakers might get rid of that forest
and plant more... Vines.
Exactly. Yeah.
Barolo, produced exclusively in this tiny corner of the Langhe,
is one of Italy's finest and most expensive wines.
Nebbia is Italian for fog,
and when the fogs of fall come,
that's when the Nebbiolo is harvested.
So I'm here at the perfect time
to see how Giulia transforms these grapes.
Come in.
So you can smell it?
Definitely. I definitely smell it.
We finished the harvest two weeks ago. Mm-hm.
We're truly in the peak of the fermentations.
And if you listen...
BUBBLING SOUND
Oh, yeah. It's alive.
It's alive!
Wow.
Our job is to keep the capa always wet
during the fermentation,
because otherwise it becomes like the vinegar.
Oh, vinegar. Yeah.
But you're putting wine... We are pumping it from the lower parts.
Oh, you're pumping it from the bottom into the top. Exactly.
Oh, I see, I see.
I'd like to have this in my kitchen.
Did you go and study winemaking, or you just taught yourself?
I never studied winemaking.
Not knowing nothing about it,
er, made me learn really fast.
Yeah. Wine is more...
It's like cooking. Yeah.
It's the same.
It's more really...
I don't know how to say it.
Now for the best part of the process, for me, at least.
Now we will taste some Barolo that is very young.
It will be 2019, but it will stay still two years here.
So at the half of the ageing.
I'm not spitting that out.
It's delicious.
But you can tell it just needs more time.
Definitely.
How old are you? 30, last week.
It's incredible.
One of the region's youngest vintners,
Giulia's instinctive feel for the grapes, plus her meticulous
observation of the process, makes her wine outstanding.
So we will open another Barolo,
the last vintage, which is the 2017.
Cheers. Cheers. Thank you very much. Thank you.
Hmm.
That's really nice.
That's great.
It is distinctly different than the 2019,
which is still... In the barrel. ..in the barrel.
The tannins are more prominent.
And yet, at the same time, it's sort of lighter and more delicate.
Mm-hm. It's more balanced now.
Literally, it was off balance.
It's going back and forth.
That's the longest description of any glass of wine
that anyone's ever made,
and I'm really sorry.
I'm sorry. I could say that, you know, it has notes of strawberry,
but I won't say that because it doesn't.
I'll just say it's pretty good,
and it's getting better
as it's opening.
It's incredible how really Barolo,
you put it in the glass and in ten minutes it's changed completely.
Totally. So you need a truffle to pair it, and then...
I know. Well, let's go look for one.
I cannot resist the call of the Alps, which dominate
the skyline everywhere in Piedmont.
Finally going up in the world,
I've ascended to Italy's smallest and highest region,
Valle d'Aosta.
Nestled in the Alps, its cuisine
is influenced by close neighbours France and Switzerland.
As usual, I'm famished.
And there's a little restaurant at the foot of the Matterhorn,
dedicated to Alpine food, Alpage.
Hello. Nice to meet you.
Welcome. Thank you.
Thanks. Thanks for having me.
Cecilia Lazzarotto, a local teacher and sommelier,
knows a thing or two about the best this region has to offer.
Are we going to eat? Yes. We can go outside if you want. Yeah.
With views like these, you have to eat outside.
What do we have?
This is a... Jambon.
Oh, you're speaking French.
All right, go ahead.
This one is...
Yeah. Lard.
Thank you.
Look at that, how beautiful that is.
So this region, there are basically three different languages...
But I think most of the population of our region
consider themselves Italian. Italian.
It's strange because we never see on the other side of the mountain,
but we know who are on the other side.
And if there's one dish that Valle d'Aosta's close neighbours
are famous for...
..it's fondue.
On this side of the mountains, it's called fonduta.
And over here, they make it a little differently.
Yeah. The difference between, for example, Switzerland and France,
they have fonduta with different cheese.
What do they use?
Gruyere. Maybe a bit of raclette.
Italian fontina cheese from cows
fed on sweet grass high in these mountains
make the fonduta so luscious,
it doesn't need the white wine they add in France or Switzerland.
Oh, my God! That is so good.
That was incredible.
So delicious.
All these dishes are packed with calories.
Perfect for a day high in the mountains.
And I couldn't leave without going to the top of one.
I've actually skied here before,
and the view from the peak is spectacular.
I can't wait to see it again.
And then, as if on cue...
Look, we're just enveloped in cloud!
Here we go right into it.
That was a trip for nothing!
We are on the border,
so we have to cross.
OK. Ready? Yes.
You're ready? OK.
Wow. We're in Switzerland. We're in Switzerland.
Oh, wait, I forgot something.
Is that where we're going?
Yeah. Rifugio. Rifugio. Rifugio.
What better way to end my journey to the Alps
than with a glass of the local liquor?
Genepi is a real winter warmer.
It's made with wormwood,
an alpine plant celebrated for its healing properties.
Cheers. Thank you so much.
Thank you to you.
It's fantastic. It's from herbs from mountains.
Oof! Fantastic. No? Yes.
The genepi has brightened things up considerably inside and out.
Oh, look. Now we can really see it. Yeah.
Magnificent.
It's difficult to describe.
Sometimes I see them and I shut up because it's impossible
to talk about.
Beautiful!
Stretched out below is Valle d'Aosta,
and Piedmont, beyond, where the Italian nation was born.
A region without which I wouldn't be searching for Italy at all.