A CHOCOLATE-COFFEE BICERIN IN TURIN
What makes chocolate so desirable? Is it the sweetness, the bitterness, the dark colour, the melting effect, the smooth texture? Or is it all of the above? Or perhaps it’s more of a fantasy in our minds....
In Turin, it is definitely not a fantasy in my mind. Let me tell you a love story about a drink and a city. The drink is the bicerin and the place is Caffè al Bicerin!
If Turin is a fine example of elegance and chic, Caffè al Bicerin is the finest. To get to al Bicerin, you must make your way through the city’s New York-style gridded streets and alleys. Look for Piazza della Consolata, which is around the corner from the crowded Piazza della Republica and its famous Porta Palazzo market. They say that this is the biggest open-air market in Europe, with fruits, vegetables, fish, meat, fabrics – and an old section that is a producers-only market with regional specialties.
You’ll know when you reach Piazza della Consolata, because it has a completely different tone: calm, peaceful and surrounded by a baroque church, an erboristeria (l’Antica Erboristeria della Consolata, one of the oldest in town, with centuries-old shelving, boxes and floor) and a few chairs and tables in front of an old-style window. You are there, at the bicerin birthplace and temple: Caffè al Bicerin.
Bicerin, the drink, consists of layers of espresso coffee and drinking chocolate and is topped with cream. I would say it is the perfect drink for those who can’t decide which they would like: coffee or hot chocolate. Why not have both topped with cold, thick cream? The hot chocolate and coffee are sipped through the cream on top, creating the perfect blend of taste, texture and temperature. Bicerin is a Piedmontese word that means “small glass” in English. The bicerin glass is actually not so small. It resembles a thick wine glass with a short stem.
Caffè al Bicerin is my favourite café in the world: an old dark-green iron door to get in, a tiny honey-coloured wood-panelled room, fine long velvet benches along the walls, small round marble tables that can hold cups or bicerins, small plates of delicious homemade patisserie or cornettos, and always a candle. Facing the door is the bicerin altar, the old wooden counter where everything is prepared – by women only! Since its first days in 1763, al Bicerin has changed hands from men to women! At one time, cafés used to be restricted to men; but women took over the management of al Bicerin, which made it suitable for women to frequent. Today, kitchen and service are presided over by women, as chic as their city, often in black with the de rigueur line of pearls.
If there is one place to go for coffee in the world, it is certainly al Bicerin...for a bicerin, a cornetto crema and an apple Savoyard.
Shall we meet there one day soon?
Kamal Mouzawak
Founder of Souk el Tayeb, Lebanon’s first farmers market, Kamal is the son of a farmer and producer who grew up in the gardens and kitchens of his surroundings appreciating a good taste for food, life and the experience of food and produce coming from their source of origin. After a career as a graphic designer, Kamal followed a path of food and travel writing, teaching macrobiotic cooking and a stint as a chef on TV preaching his passions as a healthy cook. That all lead to more involvement in change and transformation – social, environmental, and personal; he recently received an award in New York as an “Arab World Social Innovator”. Kamal has been recognized for his powerful impact as a social catalyst using food, community and the individual to celebrate a people around a common language in a country coming out of conflict. Since its launch in 2004, Souk el Tayeb (The market of all good things) had the vision of celebrating food and traditions that unite communities and promoting small-scale farmers, producers and a culture of sustainable agriculture. Today’s Souk el Tayeb is a weekly farmers market, Food & Feast regional festivals, Souk @ School education and awareness programs, el Tayeb newsletter, Dekenet Souk el Tayeb, and the latest project of Tawlet Souk el Tayeb a coop kitchen/restaurant where a different cook/producer prepares the daily lunch.