If it's true that the cuisine of a region is born from the relationship between the products of its terrain and the way that people use them, Piedmont offers an abundant gastronomic tradition divided into three very distinctive classes of food - common, noble and above all, borghese, or middle class.
Common or working class dishes are defined by the occupations of their creators.
For example, vegetable vendors are known for dishes made with leeks, olive oil-preserved tuna, mackerel or other fish, and little rabbits that have been fed with wild willow leaves. The food of cattlemen, carriage drivers, and attendants is just like what you find at roadside inns: tripe soup, brad and oxtails, chick peas and pig's heads, bean salad, onions and boiled meat or olive oil-preserved fish, pickled vegetables and fish, and hearty, cooked salami. Masons favor stews, agnolitti and polenta with gorgonzola or brôs, a local cheese.
Fishermen like eel cooked in red wine and pickled fresh water fish.
Peasant or modest food, for instance soma d'ai, makes up in flavor what it lacks in rich ingredients. The food that comes out of the courts and palaces, of nobility was inspired by the food of Piemonte's neighbor, France. There is evidence of this influence in the complex meals made with game or the great and rich risottos.
However, the biggest influence on food of the region is la cucina borghese or the food of the middle class. Characterized by a great variety of tasty, well-balanced ingredients, it is exemplified in dishes such as finanziera, bollito misto accompanied by its incomparable sauce, bagnet and other excellent meat, the region's version of fritto misto and an infinite range of antipasti.
