Piazza Duomo

Piazza Duomo is chef Enrico Crippa's three-Michelin-star restaurant in the centre of Alba, the capital of the Langhe and Italy's white-truffle town, widely regarded as one of the country's very best restaurants. Crippa, who trained with Gualtiero Marchesi and spent formative years in Japan, has built a singular, garden-driven cuisine around the produce of his own kitchen gardens in the Langhe hills, and the restaurant's most emblematic dish, the Salad 21...31...41...51, is a composition of dozens of leaves, herbs and flowers that has become one of the most recognised plates in modern Italian cooking. Other signatures change with the seasons but consistently spotlight Piedmontese ingredients, with tajarin and white truffle starring in autumn. The intimate dining room, painted in distinctive soft pink with artwork by Francesco Clemente, seats only a small number of guests, lending the experience a rarefied, almost private feel. Service is precise and gracious, dress is smart, and meals follow long tasting menus paired with one of the region's most serious wine lists, deep in Barolo and Barbaresco. Prices are at the very top of the Italian scale, as expected of a three-star destination. Demand is intense and the room tiny, so reservations are essential and should be made one to two months ahead, with the autumn truffle season booking out furthest in advance. For travellers serious about food, it is a primary reason to visit the Langhe.