Torino – j’adore

I adore going to Torino. It reminds me a lot of Paris and has a feel of San Francisco about it.
This week we ended our Ecole Chocolat tour with two days in Torino.

Of course, one of the reasons was Chocolate! Torino has it’s own chocolate festival called CioccolaTO, TO being the initials for TOrino.

On our way in, we stopped at a family artisan chocolate shop, which makes its own chocolate, marron glace and gianduia. Tuscany has the Chocolate Valley and Piemonte also is forming the Gianduja Chocolate Valley. Lorenzo Zuccarello is one of these chocolatiere’s.

Gianduia is Italy’s peanut butter. Hazelnuts are made into a paste then added to melted chocolate. It can be spreadable or the traditional shape of the gianduiotto, a triangle, like the keel of a ship.

With Guido Gobino in his lab/shop in Torino

We also went to visit one of my personal God’s in the chocolate world, Guido Gobino. Not only are his chocolates fabulous, but the sense of style and creativity always blows me away.

I can’t tell you how crazy we all went in his shop. And not just the chocolates- check out the shopping bag, made from what is normally a cement bag!

But we also worked! Three days of hands-on classes at ICAM in Lecco with Master Chocolatier, Riccardo Magni. It was great to work for more than one day with Chef, as confidence builds.


Our final chocolate display at the end of the workshop- no, we did not eat it all!

More later- getting ready to finish up this month’s classes and then off to do a week in Rome, Florence, Panzano and Naples doing research with a chef on FIRE- and then off to Sicily for my one week culinary adventure. Can’t wait, new oil is out and I am stocking up!