RISTORANTE 'LA TETTOIA'

At the beginning of Bienca, at the point where the first houses interrupt the loneliness of the road up from Chiaverano, was an inn, strategically located on both sides: on the left was the stable for sheltering and changing the horses of those who traveled; on the right was the inn proper, with a large courtyard at the front; the old Edelweiss, better known as Ca' d' Prett ('Peretto House'), known throughout the Canavese area as a hilly place of refreshment and coolness, especially in the summertime, was taken over in 1949 by Angiolina Regruto Tomalino, an energetic lady from an outspoken Chiaveranese family, and her husband Pietro Curnis, an enterprising man from Bergamo who had done his military service in Piedmont. After twenty years in business, the Curnis couple, assisted by their son Luciano, left La Stella Alpina to open La Tettoia, a much larger restaurant located exactly in the center of Bienca, in 1969; Luciano, whose work was joined by his wife Ivana from 1974, headed the kitchen until his untimely death in 1994. After becoming part of the "Associazione Ristoranti della Tradizione Canavesana," which aims to recover the dishes of the past and to enhance the gastronomic heritage of the area, even today, more than 45 years after its founding, La Tettoia is still run by the Curnis family, with Ivana and her daughter Valentina at the helm. The dishes most closely linked to local traditions that La Tettoia offers are the Sweet Stuffed Onions of Bienca, Piedmont-style Mixed Fritto misto, Vianda (a soup of milk, rice, and chestnuts), and Zuppa di ajucche (an exclusively Canavese woodland herb that sprouts between April and May).