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Piazza Duomo

Alba

Exploring northern Italian traditions through culinary storytelling

On the Pass

Enrico Crippa

Pastry Chef

Giulia Mizzoni

A vinous pedigree: Founded in 2005 by chef Enrico Crippa and the Ceretto winemaking family, Piazza Duomo takes its bottles as seriously as its food – one of its menus is even named Barolo (no prizes for guessing the wine pairing). In the cellar, the family's own wines share space with a wider selection of Piedmont pours and international names, giving diners plenty to explore both close to home and further afield.

What's the food like? Enrico Crippa's colourful, garden-led cuisine combines Piedmontese traditions with influences gathered throughout his career. Two menus explore different sides of his cooking: Barolo connects the region's famous red wine with its culinary history, while Seasonal Things follows the rhythms of the harvest, showcasing produce from the restaurant's greenhouses and organic and biodynamic gardens.

Eating with the seasons: Winter brings seasonal dishes such as pumpkin risotto with guinea-fowl livers, and spring ushers in the likes of peas and cuttlefish in a cuttlefish-ink reduction. In autumn, another menu enters the line-up: Crippa's eight-course Alba White Truffle menu, celebrating one of the Langhe region's most prized ingredients.

A taste of the past: Many of Crippa's dishes come with a backstory. Snails and polenta, for example – featuring stewed snails, maize-and-buckwheat polenta and aromatic herbs – is a nod to a local snail-rearing tradition attributed to Benedictine monks. Then there's Pane Carlo Alberto: a bread enriched with butter, anchovies and walnuts that's said to have been fed to troops during the First Italian War of Independence.

The aesthetic: Chef Crippa's talent is matched by the unique environment provided by the historic building the restaurant calls home. The dining room's pink walls are decorated with frescoes by Francesco Clemente, and the windows afford a fine vista of Alba's stunning Piazza Risorgimento and its marvellous duomo.

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