The arrival of cocoa in Turin
Before the discovery of the New World by the Spaniards at the end of the 15th century, the only peoples who consumed cocoa were the Olmecs, the Mayas and the Aztecs. And it was already a rare, sought-after product, and even haloed with almost magical virtues. The cocoa tree is a very difficult tree to cultivate: it takes years to produce fruit, does not bear fruit every year, requires a climate that is both hot and humid, and fears the sun more than anything. And the transformation of the fruit into a consumable product is not an easy task: the seeds must be extracted from the fruit (30 to 50 seeds per fruit), left to ferment and dry, then roasted and ground in order to obtain a powder that must be flavoured to make it pleasant to the palate. The people of Central America generally flavoured this drink with chilli, which certainly explains why Christopher Columbus hated cocoa when he tasted it for the first time in 1502! He therefore thought it was not worth bringing it back to Europe... A few years later, in 1519, Hernán Cortés, another famous explorer, converted to this beverage by discovering its numerous virtues: cocoa helps fight, among other things, against hunger, fatigue and diarrhea.
Cocoa arrived in Spain, but no one was really seduced by the bitter taste of this drink until they had the idea of sweetening it... From then on, cocoa, served as a hot drink, was a huge success at court, and honey, milk, vanilla or cinnamon were added. Emmanuel-Philibert of Savoy, who, allied with the Spaniards, had just won a great success against the kingdom of France in 1559, stayed for some time at the Spanish court. He discovered cocoa and brought it back to Turin, which in 1563 became the new capital of the States of Savoy instead of Chambéry. It is said that the Duke of Savoy decided to celebrate his return and the transfer of the capital by offering a glass of hot chocolate to the entire population! This may be a legend, or it may not have happened again, as cocoa is a rare and expensive product, reserved for an elite, which is only available in European courts. Hot chocolate remained an aristocratic drink for a long time, always accompanied by biscuits to dip in the sweet beverage.
Turin becomes the European capital of chocolate
In the 17th century, a treatise extolled the health benefits of chocolate. In France, at the court of the Sun King in Versailles, it was even claimed that one should drink ten cups a day! In Turin, in 1678, the regent Marie-Jeanne-Baptiste de Savoie-Nemours authorized by decree the sale and exploitation of the cocoa beverage. From that moment on, Turin became Europe's largest chocolate production center, producing hundreds of kilos of chocolate every day, much of which was exported to Switzerland, Germany and France.
In Piedmont, and above all in Turin, a new drink was created in the 18th century: bavaresia, served in a transparent glass that reveals three superimposed layers: hot chocolate at the bottom, coffee in the middle and creamy milk on top. The idea is not to mix these three layers, so as to break down the three flavors. When tasting, you first appreciate the sweetness of the milk, then the bitterness of the coffee, and finally the creaminess of the chocolate. This drink, which dates back to 1763, took the name of bicerin (meaning "little glass") in 1840, and is served in the café of the same name, which still exists in Turin, and whose setting has changed very little. The bicerin is one of Turin's great historic and elegant cafés, where the history of Italian unity was written in the 19th century. During a trip to Italy in 1852, Alexandre Dumas père reported: "Among the beautiful and good things I noticed in Turin, I will never forget the bicerin, a kind of excellent drink, composed of coffee, milk and chocolate, which is served in all the cafés, at a relatively low price".
The invention of gianduja
At the beginning of the 19th century, Turin shone on the world of chocolate. But in 1806, Napoleon, who occupied Piedmont, decided to prevent the United Kingdom from trading with the rest of Europe, in an attempt to ruin the country that was brazenly resisting him. During this long period of continental blockade, it became very difficult to obtain cocoa. To compensate for this scarcity, Turin's chocolatiers came up with the idea of adding an inexpensive and abundant ingredient to cocoa: the Langhe hazelnut, of the Tonda gentile variety (in 1996, this exceptional hazelnut was awarded IGP certification - Protected Geographical Indication). Thanks to the high nutritional and taste quality of this hazelnut, the blend is particularly tasty.
At the same time, a new way of consuming chocolate was introduced, thanks to the invention of a process that made it solid. In Italy, in 1802, Bozelli built an automatic hydraulic machine to grind cocoa and mix it with sugar, giving rise to the first industrial system for producing chocolate bars. In 1826, Pier Paul Caffarel set up his chocolate factory in Turin, today the oldest in Italy. The city's pioneer of solid chocolate, he used one of his new machines to produce over 300 kg a day. It was then that chocolate became a delicacy accessible to the general population, and no longer a beverage reserved for the elite. An interesting linguistic detail: in Italian, the word chocolate is feminine when referring to the drink (a hot chocolate is called una cioccolata calda) and masculine when referring to its solid version(il cioccolato).
In 1852, Caffarel joined forces with chocolatier Prochet, who perfected the technique of extremely fine grinding of Langhe hazelnuts. The resulting powder, of absolute finesse and powerful yet delicate flavor, was mixed with cocoa, powdered sugar, fat and vanilla. Prochet spent several years perfecting the recipe, dosing the ingredients, until he achieved the perfect consistency, the maximum creaminess, that we still know today ( gianduja, with 40% hazelnut). It was in 1865, on the occasion of the Turin Carnival, that the two chocolatiers decided to launch this revolutionary new product on the market. Another brilliant innovation: an individual golden paper wrapper, allowing these little chocolates to be thrown to the crowds from the floats parading through the streets! This is the first time that chocolate has been packaged in this way in small portions. The new chocolates are shaped like an upside-down boat or, in some cases, a tricorne, the same hat worn by the famous Turin carnival character, Gianduja, who distributes the hazelnut chocolates from the Caffarel float. For the record, in 1789, puppeteer Giovanni Battista Sales met a talkative, charismatic man nicknamed Gioann dla doja in the vicinity of Asti, and was inspired to create his Gianduja puppet, which went on to become a carnival mask and one of Turin's symbols. Caffarel and Prochet's little chocolates took the name gianduiotti. Success was immediate. In 1865, Turin mourned the loss of its status as capital of the Kingdom of Italy to Florence, but the city gained a new source of wealth and pride thanks to gianduiotti.
The art of chocolate making in Turin: a living heritage
It's impossible to list all the historic chocolatiers, whether industrial or artisanal, who have been operating in Piedmont since the 19th century and perpetuating this chocolate-making tradition, but here are a few: Caffarel, Turin's oldest practicing chocolatier; Baratti & Milano, two partners who opened a confectionery in 1858; Leone, founded in 1857 in Alba and present in Turin since 1880; Peyrano, dating from 1914, the leading artisan chocolate maker; Streglio (1924), Feletti (1882), Talmone (1850); Venchi, created by a former Baratti & Milano worker who set up on his own in 1878; Novi (1903), Pernigotti (1868), A. Giordano (1897), today run by the Faletti family, the only chocolate factory that still cuts its chocolates by hand; or Guido Gobino (1964), one of Italy's top chocolatiers out of the 600 on the peninsula.
It would be impossible to list all the famous Piedmontese sweets, apart from the famous cocoa-based gianduiotti, which are a masterpiece of chocolate art: the bonét, a cake found throughout Piedmont, combining amaretti, cocoa and rum; thealpino with its creamy center; the boero with its chocolate shell surrounding a liqueur-flavored cherry; the cremino, which alternates layers of gianduja and chocolate; the delicious baci di dama (lady's kisses) composed of two hazelnut shells joined by creamy chocolate; the unmissable cuneesi al rhum, made with a clever blend of chocolate, meringue and rum, available from Arione, the creator of this authentic temple of sweets in Cuneo; not forgetting the Pinguino, created by Pepino in 1939 and known in France as l'esquimau, the world's first hand-grabbed ice cream on a stick, with various flavors surrounded by a chocolate shell, still handcrafted according to the original recipe.
Finally, it's impossible not to mention Ferrero, the small family pastry shop in Alba that became a food giant in just a few years, thanks to the almost accidental invention of Nutella. Legend has it that brothers Giovanni and Pietro Ferrero perfected a mixture of cocoa and hazelnut in 1946. During the scorching summer of 1949, the paste became creamy and would no longer solidify. The two brothers decided to sell it as is, in small glass jars. The success of this delicious, nourishing and inexpensive paste, spread on bread, was resounding. A myth was born!
Chocolate, a true "dish of the gods", is enjoyed in all manner of ways in Turin and Piedmont, the region accounting for over 40% of Italy's national production. Every year since 2003, Turin has organized CioccolaTò, a gargantuan tribute to chocolate with events, tastings, exhibitions and shows. Turinese, Italian and international master chocolatiers, industrial companies and artisanal chocolate makers present their know-how to the public in the streets of the Piedmontese capital. It's the ideal opportunity to taste chocolate in its many variations at the many producers' stands, and to discover the infinite wealth and inexhaustible inventiveness of those involved in this eternally evolving heritage.
As Italy's undisputed center of chocolate production and processing, with one of the world's most fertile chocolate-making traditions, and a place where artisanal production has never stopped, there's no doubt about it: Turin is definitely Italy's chocolate capital!
