Piemonte

The beautiful region of Piemonte, the trend setters of Italy in terms of Cuisine and food-ways. In the beginning, the Ligurian people were the first to inhabit this area, whom learned to cultivate plants and animals along the mountain range that borders it. Sadly, the Ligurians were dominated by the Romans, go figure. Then, with the invasion of the Barbarians close to Rome's fall, the region was divided into many different colonies/counties. Due to the amount of colonies, the cuisine of Piemonte was very divided, and much of the culture was as well. due to the Barbarians that invaded, both being Germanic and Franco/Lombards.

Later into the History of Piemonte, there came a powerful family that almost equalled the Medici family, named the Savoia Family. In their reign, they sought to unite Piemonte, both culturally and in terms of Cuisine. The process began, and after a long period of time, they successfully united all of Piemonte. After the unification, they sought to unify the rest of Italy as well, but to no avail.

Since Piemonte borders france, their culture has become intertwined with french culture. With this, comes a new form of Dialect, Patois, which is  a mix of French and Italian dialect. Along with language, comes the cuisine. Many of the recipes that we tested today were very french in ways, such as using a lot of butter and cream. Along with that, comes the use of chocolate. During the early 20th century, Napoleon put a tariff on chocolate coming in and out of Italy. Since Piemonte had a lot of Hazelnuts growing in the area, they decided to try and cut hazelnut into chocolate, thus creating Gianduja, which is a chocolate/hazelnut mixture that is to die for. Along with that, comes the rise of Nutella, a chocolate/hazelnut spread that we would use on everything if we got the chance to.

Along with the chocolate, comes the truffles. There are three specific regions that are known for truffles, Piemonte, Tuscany and Umbria. Of these regions, Piemonte is the most known for their white truffles, as they are known best for those. These beautiful fungi are the reason why the restaurant industry blows millions of dollars a year in the US, as these damn things are so rare to find! Not just that, a certain breed of pig or dog is used to hunt them down.