A Piedmontese inn on Via Fossano in Cervere, kept by the Vivalda family since 1815 and held to two Michelin stars by Gian Piero Vivalda — six generations of cooking, a vaulted…
The verdict
A low pale-yellow inn on Via Fossano, kept by the Vivalda family since 1815 and now in its sixth generation under Gian Piero Vivalda — two Michelin stars in the Italian guide, a vaulted brick cantina, an Orto Reale at the back, and the cooking of Piemonte and Cuneo cuisine turned through two centuries of one family's hand. La tradizione è la nostra innovazione.
From the editors · Vedere House
The particulars
Setting
Via Fossano 13, 12040 Cervere (CN) — a small inn at the edge of a village in the Piemontese plain, half an hour east of Bra and forty minutes south of Torino
House
A pale-yellow building with green shutters and a small monogrammed glass door — three dining rooms above and a vaulted brick cantina below, opened to a private table for one party at a time
Kitchen
Gian Piero Vivalda (chef-patron) — sixth-generation Vivalda, trained at Georges Blanc in Vonnas and Alain Ducasse in Paris
Sous chef
Christian Conidi — the second hand at the pass and the keeper of the daily mise
Family
Founded in 1815 by Alessandro Vivalda — Lorenzo, Giovanni, Eugenio, Renzo, and now Gian Piero, six generations on
Stars
Two Michelin stars — Guida Michelin Italia
Garden
Orto Reale — vegetables, fruit trees and aromatic herbs walked in from a kitchen garden behind the building, and the Roseto Reale of more than twenty English rose varieties beside it
Country
The cooking of Piemonte and the Cuneese — Fassona del Piemonte, the porro di Cervere, hazelnuts of the Langhe, white truffle from Alba in season
Cellar
A vaulted brick cellar set with walnut racks — a long Barolo, Barbaresco and Champagne shelf, served from a private table beneath the vault
Atelier
AtelieReale — the in-house pâtisserie of Nuvola Reale, Colomba and Torta alla Nocciola, baked behind the kitchen
Service
Thursday to Monday — lunch and dinner; Tuesday lunch only; closed Wednesday
Best for
A long Piemontese lunch from Torino (forty minutes north) or a slow stop on the way through the Langhe, between Bra and the white-truffle hills of Alba
Cervere is a small village in the Piemontese plain, half an hour east of Bra and forty minutes south of Torino — the road runs through Fossano on one side and the white-truffle hills of Alba on the other. The Antica Corona Reale sits on the village's main street, Via Fossano: a low pale-yellow inn with green shutters and a small crowned door. Alessandro Vivalda opened it in 1815. Six generations later, the kitchen is held by Gian Piero Vivalda — Lorenzo, Giovanni, Eugenio, Renzo, and now Gian Piero — with two stars in the Italian Michelin guide and Christian Conidi cooking beside him at the pass.
“
La tradizione è la nostra innovazione.
”
The cooking is Piemontese by appellation and Cuneese by hand. Fassona del Piemonte for the meat, the porro di Cervere from the fields ten minutes' walk away, hazelnuts of the Langhe for the pastry; in season the Alba white truffle. The format is a six-course tasting written each morning from what has come in, recommended for the table — capesante confit and Oscietra, calamaro ripieno al nero, ravioli di gorgonzola with pears and almonds, tagliolino ai 36 tuorli d'uovo with ossobuco ragù, capretto rosolato with artichokes and mint, and a pear panna cotta all'anice stellato to finish. The seasoning is exact; the plates are quiet; the room keeps to the country house.
Behind the inn the Orto Reale runs in long striped beds, walked in each morning to the kitchen; the Roseto Reale of English roses sits beside it for colour and scent. Beneath the inn the cantina is a low vaulted brick cellar set with walnut racks of Barolo and Barbaresco — a single round table is laid for one party at a time under the arch. The AtelieReale, behind the kitchen, bakes the Nuvola Reale, the Colomba and the Torta Reale alla Nocciola that leave the building as gifts. The dining room is open Thursday to Monday for lunch and dinner, Tuesday for lunch, closed Wednesday. The right shape of the visit is a long lunch from Torino, the slow road home through the Langhe.
Signature moments
01
Six generations under one roof
The Antica Corona Reale was opened in 1815 by Alessandro Vivalda, on the road that runs through Cervere from Fossano to Bra. The line goes Alessandro, Lorenzo, Giovanni, Eugenio, Renzo — and now Gian Piero, who took the kitchen after stages with Georges Blanc at Vonnas and Alain Ducasse in Paris and brought the house from a country trattoria to a two-star kitchen in the Italian guide. Christian Conidi cooks beside him at the pass; the family runs the floor. Two hundred and ten years on, the room is still a Piemontese inn — pale yellow walls, green shutters, a small crowned door — and the cooking is still drawn from the country immediately around it.
02
A kitchen of Piemonte and Cuneo
The menu is a six-course tasting written from the country immediately around the door. Capesante confit with cauliflower tapenade and Oscietra; calamaro ripieno al nero with Albenga artichokes and pink prawns; bijoux di panissa Ligure; ravioli di gorgonzola with pears and almonds; tagliolino ai 36 tuorli d'uovo with ossobuco ragù and saffron; capretto rosolato with artichokes and mint; and a dessert of pear panna cotta all'anice stellato with caramelised pear sorbet. The cooking holds tightly to the Piemontese register — Fassona del Piemonte, the porro di Cervere from the village fields, hazelnuts of the Langhe — and is finished, course after course, with the exact restraint that two stars expect.
03
An Orto Reale and a Roseto
At the back of the building runs the Orto Reale — a working kitchen garden of vegetables, fruit trees and aromatic herbs walked in fresh each morning to the kitchen — and beside it the Roseto Reale, a rose garden of more than twenty English varieties planted for colour and scent. The cantina, a vaulted Roman-brick cellar set with walnut racks of Barolo and Barbaresco, runs beneath the inn and seats a single party for the night under the arch. Behind the kitchen is the AtelieReale, the in-house bakery from which Nuvola Reale, Colomba, panettone and Torta Reale alla Nocciola travel back out as gifts.
