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Chocolates from Turin, Italy


mbalaver

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I'm doing a presentation in Italian class Monday on chocolates and chocolate shops in Turin (aka Torino). It seems unfair to show slides of chocolate candy and not bring some in to share with my classmates. Does anyone know whether any chocolate shops in the area carry chocolates from Italy, and particularly Turin? I'd love to find some gianduiotto , a chocolate hazelnut candy. The teacher also asked me to cover bicerin, a drink made popular in Turin that layers espresso, hot chocolate, and whipped milk or cream in a small glass. Bonus points for anyone who knows if there's anywhere around here that carries it. I found a NYT article published during the 2006 winter Olympics that discusses the drink and mentions that "One of the few places in the States offering bicerin is Laboratorio del Galileo in Washington, where Roberto Donna, the chef, spikes it with rum and serves it as a predessert. It's his most requested recipe." I wonder if there's any chance of seeing that at the new Galileo.

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I'm doing a presentation in Italian class Monday on chocolates and chocolate shops in Turin (aka Torino). It seems unfair to show slides of chocolate candy and not bring some in to share with my classmates. Does anyone know whether any chocolate shops in the area carry chocolates from Italy, and particularly Turin? I'd love to find some gianduiotto , a chocolate hazelnut candy. The teacher also asked me to cover bicerin, a drink made popular in Turin that layers espresso, hot chocolate, and whipped milk or cream in a small glass. Bonus points for anyone who knows if there's anywhere around here that carries it. I found a NYT article published during the 2006 winter Olympics that discusses the drink and mentions that "One of the few places in the States offering bicerin is Laboratorio del Galileo in Washington, where ...

try Piazza Italian Market - they have a variety of Italian chocolates. They're in Easton, MD

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Obviously I spotted this thread about a week too late, but the Bella Italia boutique in Bethesda used to carry the Guido Gobino gianduiotti, including their "Tourinot Maximo" which is mind-blowingly good. By mind-blowing, I'm talking hazelnut sex in a foil wrapper. You also should to be able to mail-order it from Zingerman's; I've bought it at their retail chocolate counter.

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Thank you both for the suggestions. I ended up having success close to home, at Biagio in Adams Morgan. I saw on their website they carry Italian chocolates, so I figured I'd make do with something similar, but it turned out they had just what I needed: Domori gianduiotti from the town of None, just south of Turin. They were delicious. I'll check out the selection at Bella Italia next time I'm up in Bethesda. Also, Dolcezza (at least at their Dupont location) carries Guido Gobino's crema gianduja, a hazelnut/chocolate spread -- a higher end version of Nutella. I haven't been able to convince myself to pay the $20 for a jar of it yet.

By the way, I learned while preparing my presentation that the chocolate/hazelnut combination was created in the 1800s, when due to a naval blockade cacao from the New World was in short supply. Chocolatiers in Piedmont (where Turin is located) took hazelnuts, a local specialty, and ground them and added them to the chocolate to stretch it out and meet the growing demand for chocolate candy in Italy. Necessity/invention.

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I'm doing a presentation in Italian class Monday on chocolates and chocolate shops in Turin (aka Torino). It seems unfair to show slides of chocolate candy and not bring some in to share with my classmates. Does anyone know whether any chocolate shops in the area carry chocolates from Italy, and particularly Turin? I'd love to find some gianduiotto , a chocolate hazelnut candy. The teacher also asked me to cover bicerin, a drink made popular in Turin that layers espresso, hot chocolate, and whipped milk or cream in a small glass. Bonus points for anyone who knows if there's anywhere around here that carries it. I found a NYT article published during the 2006 winter Olympics that discusses the drink and mentions that "One of the few places in the States offering bicerin is Laboratorio del Galileo in Washington, where Roberto Donna, the chef, spikes it with rum and serves it as a predessert. It's his most requested recipe." I wonder if there's any chance of seeing that at the new Galileo.

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I was just in Turin this summer and had terrific Bicerin and giandujotti at Guido Gobino, the guru of gianduja.. http://www.guidogobino.it/#/en/news/1/ It's nearly impossible the find in the US, but I recently saw the Dolcezza carries their chocolate-hazelnut spread (the much, much better version of Nutella). Leonidas in Gtwn. sells giandujotti from Belgium. It's good, not fabulous.

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This is an epic piece of food writing: way back in 2011, Dallas-area Chowhound "Scott" aka dallasfood.org (cf Noka chocolate scandal thread) posted a 35-part series on Turinese gianduja over the course of 11 months.

For aficionados of gianduiotto, you'll probably want to skip directly to page 30.
For aficionados of Nutella, page 35.

http://dallasfood.org/2011/01/gianduia-gianduja-nutella-part-1/

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