Al Sorriso is located next to Lake Orta just 25 minutes from the magnificent Lake Maggiore and was founded 1981 by married couple Luisa and Angelo Valazza. Chef Luisa Valazza is a good example of how a life can turn out. She never planned to become one of the world’s best chefs. Luisa obtained an arts degree, but before she ever got to use that degree she was helping her husband Angelo to run Al Sorriso and spent more and more time in the kitchen. No great chefs or restaurant schools gave her any training. She is selftaught just by studying recipes and books and by having one of the most divine natural talents in all restaurant history.

Restaurant Director Angelo Valazza does a tremendous job in the dining room making every single guest feel welcome and he is a language genius who easily switches between five languages fluently so most of the guests will be talked with in their native language. In recent years Valazza’s daughter Paola has joined the restaurant team as well and among her many talents you will see her open up and handle wine bottles in one of the most stylish ways seen anywhere.

Piedmont is like an Italian version of Spain’s Basque Country with its close location to France, but at the same time a strict follower of its own country’s cuisine and traditions. What you get is a fantastic fusion of two of the best food cultures in the world and the Piedmontese cuisine offered at Al Sorriso is absolutely among the very best. Luisa Valazza manages to distribute her unique emotions of everything that is Piedmont directly into her courses so you will literally taste the land, its lush surroundings and the wild forests in her exquisite dishes.

There are two tastings menus to choose from and à la carte as well. Go with any of the tasting menus and ask for wine pairings from the impressive wine cellar with hundreds of mostly French and Italian wines. Most you will have come from Piedmont and of course you will have truffles if it is season for it. Al Sorriso has so much more than just some of the best mushroom dishes available in the world, like all the local cheese which is just fantastic. By the end of your meal you can have around 20 different cheeses on your cheese plate and every single one of them comes from Piedmont and tastes wonderful.

Luisa, Angelo and Paola Valazza offer an experience most restaurants just can dream about. They have established themselves through years of extremely hard work as one of the very best restaurants in the world and everyone with the slightest interest in cooking and for taste bud heaven should make a reservation as soon as possible.

Written by Andy