La Farcia, panini and focaccia made in Piedmont

The idea is simple yet bright, the outcome is remarkable and the rapid growth proves its success: La Farcia is the – 100% Piedmontese – establishment dedicated to high quality panini and focaccia created by Flavio Ghigo, an experienced chef (and a business partner at Palazzo Righini in Fossano) who decided to leave the kitchen to focus on the simplest yet potentially tastiest food there is: stuffed bread.

To do so, he got involved his partner Laura Fruttero– previously working in the hotel industry - his brother Fabrizio and his brother’s wife, Debora Tallone, with previous experience in bars and cafés. They have all put their experience to the service of the project. «The idea came when noticing that there was no high-quality offer when it came to panini – Laura explains. – So we decided to work on this, adding traditional Piedmontese dishes to good bread, so as to make it possible to serve them as take away food too. We want to break the idea that sandwiches are “fast” food, or even worse, junk food. Instead, when they’re properly made, sandwiches are good and healthy food, you can eat them even daily. Just what happened with ice creams, on which today there’s strong attention».

After starting with three places in Torino in 2017, La Farcia also arrived in Asti and Cuneo in 2018, and in Biella and Alessandria in 2019. It’s now about to open in Milan too. The well-oiled format is always the same: good bread, like in the old days, made with poolish and with stone-milled flour from Petra, baked in the laboratory in Salmour (near Fossano) in five different types, from the whole-wheat filoncino loaf to the sesame bread; and the high-quality seasonings add the classic Piedmontese tradition to the panini, especially with reference to Piedmontese antipasti.

The offer ranges from Grana (filoncino bread with a steak tartare of fassona, lettuce, shaved castelmagno PDO, cream of baked tomatoes) to Maira (ciabatta with anchovies and green sauce, tomato and grilled courgettes) and much more, which you can eat in or take away. The menu also includes two types of focaccia: the thick and soft one, filled in between – as in the case of the Piemontese with home-made veal sausage, roasted pepper, extra virgin olive oil and robiola from Roccaverano – and the thinner and crispier ones, seasoned on top. There are also pastries and cakes for breakfast, toasts, and traditional Piedmontese dishes, like veal in tuna sauce and soups), classic biscuits (from baci di dama to brutti e buoni) and a nice selection of puddings, including of course bunet.