Alba

[Bill Klapp]

I share your professed love of the Piemonte (to the point of having purchased a retirement home in nearby Neive), and I blather about it regularly on the Italy board here. Have you been back lately, and if so, what exciting finds can you share with us?

[Jeffrey Steingarten]

Bill, I haven't been back since the last Slow Food convention in Turin, and then only for a day. After speaking about you with Phyllis at Vogue, I would rely on you and her to discover the latest and newest. Maybe its time for me to write a restaurant roundup of Piemonte. But so much eating!

Three years ago Cesare Bardini at Agrimontana i(Cuneo) reached me during slow food and said that a car would come for me at 3 PM. He gave me no other information. Well, the car arrived and took me to Cesare's in Albaretto. Cesare was recovering from his cancer and he hadn't been cooking well; I hadn't seen him in four years. In any event, the Langhe was at its most magical with the nebbia slowing sliding through the hollows of the hills while glimpses of the pink Alps shone through now and then. Cesare had the shoulder of kid in the fireplace--he knows it's my favorite--and the rest of the meal was very fine and contained nothing I had eaten before, except one of the pastas. The tartuffi were near their best. Only somebody like you could understand why I had to stop eating more often than I have ever done, to wipe my eyes.

Please don't tell anybody that I would admit this.