It's Tuesday night at six o'clock in the evening and 'Franco Frutta' rings my telephone as I rustle awake from a five minute afternoon nap. It's Tuesday and we are trying to figure out where to eat tonight. Franco, my good friend, is also Dogliani's best vegetable and fruit purveyor at the weekly farmer's market each Tuesday morning, and is extremely passionate about finding authentic local ingredients. My new moniker, Contadino Americano, was given to me at a previous dinner with Franco Frutta earlier this Spring. With Franco's resourcefulness in acquiring heirloom seeds I planted a few rows of beets, carrots, swiss chard, peppers, and tomatoes this year. The beets survived and were fully appreciated by Denise at her restaurant inside the Hotel Castello di Sinio. The harvest of these crops, truth be told, were extremely limited and honestly this does not bode well for my future prospects as a farmer. Or, as I say to myself as I run up the hill and grab a few delicious and still ripening 'cuore di bue' tomatoes now in late October, next year I will actually weed this mess of a garden.
Tonight we choose to try Le Piemontesine in the completely forgotten town of Igliano just twenty minutes from Villa San Lorenzo. Franco Frutta doesn't even know where this town is, and he's an actual local, so we agree he will pick me up at eight o'clock and I will direct him to the restaurant located past the hilltop town of Murazzano. I have heard murmurs of this restaurant around town but nothing more specific than that. We arrive even more quickly than I had expected and we wander in the recently renovated hotel and restaurant. Charlotte, one of the owner's, greets us as we enter and leads us into the large dining room that is gleaming white with each table generously spaced apart for easy quiet conversation. I sink into the extremely comfortable chair and exclaim "This chair is so comfortable I could go to sleep right here." Franco Frutta laughs in agreement.
Charlotte brings us welcome glasses of local bubbly along with an assortment of three small tastes offered by the chef. Next, we are presented with a selection of breads made in house and cooked outside in the wood fired oven. Wow, I'm impressed. I ask Charlotte how long they have been open, "twenty months, if we don't include the six years of renovation," she says. My ears perk up as this sounds like an unusual story for this part of the Alta Langa. People always look quizzical when I give a background of my life so I understand instantly that this may be a similar story to ours.
Charlotte explains that her family owned a small house just ten meters from where Le Piemontesine is now located although she and her husband, Jerome Migotto, were both born and raised in France. This, at least, gives me a clue as to how they found this tiny town of Igliano located between the Langhe wine country and the Italian Riviera in Liguria. Chef Migotto lived and worked in Paris for twenty-years and during that time he met Charlotte while they were both working at Le Grand Vefour under Chef Guy Martin next to the gardens of the Palais Royal. I'm startled because this is not what I expected to hear. Tamar and I also lived in Paris and a good friend of mine worked at Le Grand Vefour as well. Next Charlotte tells me that Chef Migotto also worked under world renowned Chef Yannick Alleno. This instantly tells me that this chef has great pedigree and must be extremely technically gifted.
Suddenly it dawns on me. I remember hearing about a French family that has children attending the same school where my daughters go to school in Bossolasco. I immediately ask Charlotte if they have children wondering if that may be the reason, like us, that they fled Paris to start a new life in the Italian countryside? "Yes, they go to school in Bossolasco," she says. OK, this is bizarre. I have been seeing this couple for over a year at school drop-off and pick-up and I never knew that it was this family with this restaurant. Small world. And what is even more strange is that they also lived near us in Paris.
It's time to stop talking and start eating. Franco Frutta and I look over the menu and decide on which dishes to try. For our starters we try the Scampi with honey and home grown vegetables as well as the special river shrimp. I prefer the Scampi to the river shrimp and Franco Frutta agrees. More bread is served. For our primi, we try the Atlantic crab filled tortellini in a lemon butter sauce and the handmade langhe style ravioli with rabbit and rosemary. Both pastas are delicious, my only complaint is that the plates are not hot enough and thus the pasta arrived a the table luke warm. I want to have a relatively light second course so we both select the fish of the day. One of the plates was an expertly cooked 'capasante' sea scallops but the downside is that there were only three scallops included in this main course entree at 22 EUR. The other fish of the day we shared is 'merluzzo' salted cod which unfortunately is less expertly cooked and is dry.
With our food I choose a Barbaresco, vintage 2009, from Azienda Agricola Taliano, followed by a few glasses of the Nebbiolo d'Alba "Blageur" also from the same Azienda Agricola Taliano. The wine list is short and has limited selections, I hope that Jerome and Charlotte can invest in the wonderful and large selection of wines that the Alta Langa and nearby Dogliani have to offer. We finished with an enormous cheese plate and a selection of 6 sorbets that were delicious. The extra 'seat' for my camera was spectacular, I've never experienced that at a restaurant. I look forward to seeing how Le Piemontesine progresses in the coming years, bravo for taking the leap and building a new life in Piedmont, Italy!
