Gourmet Food Shops in Piedmont

Piedmont is a spectacular place to shop for local delicacies as gifts or for your larder back home. Here is a brief selection of my favorite gourmet addresses:

Bono Nella e Pagliarino

This delightful store is a cheese-lover’s paradise and a great place for an on-the-spot tasting lesson in Piemontese cheeses, including Tomme and Castelmagno. It will shrink-wrap hard cheeses for travel, and also sells dried fungi porcini and truffle products.

Via Roma 44, Canale.

Eataly

The Italian gourmet emporium Eataly now has 11 outlets in Italy, plus stores in Japan, Istanbul, Dubai, New York and Chicago, with a new store in Los Angeles to open soon. The original shop in Turin’s Lingotto neighborhood occupies a former vermouth factory, and it is a head-spinning place to shop for almost every delicacy that Italy produces, including handmade pasta, all kinds of oils and vinegars, sauces, wine and liqueurs, and preserves. There are also several restaurants on the premises, including a pasta table, a wine bar with small plates, a fish restaurant, and one specializing in meat. Casa Vicina is the store’s gourmet restaurant and requires reservations.

Via Nizza 230/14, Turin.

Paissa

This atmospheric upscale grocery store stocks everything from grissini (the famous local breadsticks), to pasta, chocolate and an excellent selection of olive and nut oils. The locally produced hazelnut oil deserves a place in your suitcase.

Piazza San Carlo 196, Turin.

Peyrano

Many chocolate connoisseurs consider the chocolates of Peyrano, a Turin chocolate-maker founded in 1915, to be among the best in the world. Local favorites include grappini, chocolates filled with grappa; Dolci Momenti a Torino (“Sweet Moments in Turin”); and sublime gianduiotto, made from cocoa, sugar and hazelnuts. The marrone, chestnut-shaped chocolates filled with rum-flavored chestnut paste, are delicious, too.

Corso Moncalieri 47, Turin.