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Piazza Duomo

Alba, Italy

Inventive, artistic Italian dishes matched with superb wines in truffle country

On the Pass

Enrico Crippa

What to expect: A taste of Piedmont, one of the finest food and wine regions of the world, as seen through the sharply focused culinary lens of Enrico Crippa, now firmly established among Italy’s most creative chefs. Diners can choose from different tasting menus: in 2021, one pays homage to Barolo and the culinary traditions of Piedmont through modernist eyes, while another – called ‘the journey menu Crippa XXI’ – is the most personal outlet of the chef’s own creativity. Both are developed using organic and biodynamic ingredients.

More about the chef: Crippa opened Piazza Duomo in 2005 with the backing of the Ceretto family, themselves pioneers in the region’s winemaking resurgence of recent decades. A quiet and supremely dedicated professional, he trained and worked extensively in Europe and Japan and was mentored by legendary Italian chef Gaultiero Marchesi.

Highlights: The restaurant’s most famous dish is the Salad 21...31...41...51... which incorporates a cornucopia of leaves, herbs and vegetables, the precise number and make-up of which changes according to the season. However, it is the array of one- or two-bite flavour-filled starters – also primarily sourced from Piazza Duomo’s own garden – that linger longest in diners’ memories.

And finally: Restaurant manager Vincenzo Donatiello leads a personable young service team in the restaurant’s two dining rooms – one that is famously pink-hued. Donatiello also happens to be one of the best sommeliers in Italy, if not the world, combining access to the Barolos and Barbarescos on his Langhe doorstep with a personal passion for Burgundy to oversee wide-ranging wine list.

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