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By Manos Angelakis
During our recent trip to Piedmont we were introduced to numerous wonderful restaurants both in and around Torino with chefs as talented as any found in a major world city. The culinary guides - Michelin, Gambero Rosso, Espresso and Veronelli to name a few – cite Piedmont as being amongst the top Italian culinary regions with excellent restaurants and chefs, and they are absolutely correct.
I would like to introduce two chefs with diametrically opposite philosophies that impressed us with their talent and understanding of what makes good food.
 The first is the affable Davide Scabin, owner and top toque at Combal.Zero, a Michelin-starred restaurant adjacent to the Castello di Rivoli, one of the residences of the House of Savoy and currently the Museum of Contemporary Art.
Chef Scabin’s philosophy is concept cuisine; the restaurant as theater. Playing with food ingredients, preparation and presentation is fundamental to his belief that a restaurant should not be entered as a temple of gastronomy but approached as an adventure. He takes apart ingredients to reassemble them in unusual ways e.g. deconstructed pizzas, cybereggs, hambooks.
One can select from 3 tasting menus: Creative, Classic or Territorial, or can order à la carte elements from each menu or order the micropiatti of the lounge that are highlights of his most successful creations. The wine list is extensive with exceptional vintages from around the world (currently about 500 labels).
Since it was our first visit, it was decided to let chef Scabin guide our tasting so  he selected a variety of dishes from both his creative and classic menus. There were 9 of us at table; one did not eat fish or veal and another was allergic to garlic (what a tragedy in Italy!). But the efficiently attentive dining room staff took these limitations in stride. After a visit to the museum we had arrived fairly early to an almost empty restaurant; by the time we were half way through the meal, the 50-table room was full and humming.
 We started with a glass of a charming sparkler from the local vineyards.
Altogether, including the course substitutes for those that could not eat fish, veal or garlic, we saw and tasted 14 courses.
Some of the most interesting and/or impressive dishes:
Hambook. On a tray, between two bookstands and shaped like books, translucent containers holding strips of prosciutto and a strip of melon paste.
 Foie Gras ganache with passion-fruit gelatin.
Fried quail-egg, on potato chips with a light peanut sauce.
Cybereggs.
Vitello Tonnato alla maniera antica.
Deconstructed pizza with beer and/or coke.
Risotto with cheese and truffle sauce.
Harry Potter surprise bag of bonbons.
The wines were selected to complement each course and were all Italian, except for the champagne at the end.
We spent more than five hours at Combal.Zero, three tasting the menu and two talking with chef Scabin, who has a most interesting story to tell about his life and philosophy.
 The other notable master chef, Marina Ramasso owner of Osteria del Paluch, is philosophically in complete antithesis to Davide Scabin. Using the best available ingredients from small artisanal producers in the area, Marina Ramasso takes traditional Piedmontese cuisine to new heights. And the emphasis is on very traditional. According to her, typical Italian cooking is anything but; it is governed by area, social class and by local soil and climate conditions. Traditionally there have been three levels of cuisine, one that the rich or noble class ate, one for the middle class and the third for the peasants. She is seriously committed in her search to rediscover the old ways of food preparation so that she can develop a new Italian cuisine by melding together all these culinary levels.
Located in Baldissero Torinese, the Osteria is what I would call an upscale Italian countryside restaurant, looking more like a villa than a commercial establishment.
 We arrived in the early evening and were the only guests. Marina, her husband who is the sommelier, and her daughter who assisted both of them welcomed us at the entrance. We were escorted to the dining room that was set with a groaning board covered with numerous cheeses, prosciutto, ham, pancetta, salamis, hand made grissini and freshly baked breads, assorted olives, fresh and pickled vegetables and assorted fruit, all local products that were to be our appetizer. On a sideboard were bottles of wine that would accompany our repast – white, red, still and sparkling from the best area vintners. A large round oak table was set for us in front of an antique Viennese porcelain stove.
 The antipasto (appetizers that come before the first course which is usually pasta in the South and risotto in the North) was outstanding. The hand made cheeses were some of the best I’ve tasted, made from cow, goat and ewe’s milk or combinations of these milks, including one that was made with a large amount of white truffle shavings and aged for a considerable amount of time. There were 3 or 4 different salamis in different shapes and different degrees of dryness plus, of course, delightful prosciutto and pancetta – which is very fatty and salty Italian bacon that is wonderful either sliced extremely thin and served on a slice of warm bread with a handful of olives or used as a pasta dish ingredient. All these were washed down with copious amounts of 2000 Barbaresco, Dolchetto and Gatinarra and some really fresh and aromatic 2004 whites that, I’m sorry to say, I did not keep notes on (I was too intent on making sure I tasted everything!).
 The next course, the primo piatto, was a really creamy risotto smothered with fresh black truffle shavings. Ms. Ramasso made it while we were having our antipasto.
The second piatto arrived; a veal roast. This was a familiar dish because in Greece where I grew up it is ubiquitously served to honored guests under the “roast beef” moniker. Contrary to my expectations - based on the Greek version which is roasted till it is absolutely dead and then cooked an extra half hour just to make sure – this dish was tasty and fork tender.
By that time I was so full that I could not eat anything else. But I made a valiant effort to make a little space for dessert, which amongst other offerings had an interesting mixture of fresh cheese and fruit preserve washed down with a shot of 15-year aged Grappa.
And a great time was had by all!
© May 2005 LuxuryWeb Magazine. All rights reserved.
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