Local products, mountain cuisine and restaurants around Oulx, Bardonecchia and the alpine villages
The taste of the mountains
A holiday in the Upper Susa Valley is not just something you see.
It is something you taste too.
The local cuisine brings together Piedmontese and Occitan traditions, with strong French influences. It grew out of mountain life and the ingredients people could find locally: potatoes, cheese, cured meats, flour, herbs, honey and local farm produce.
Today, many of these flavours can still be discovered in restaurants, traditional trattorias, village festivals and mountain hamlets.
Mountain cheeses
Cheese is one of the products that best tells the story of the Alps.
Toma Piemontese, tomini, Toma del Lait Brusc, Murianeng, Plaisentif and other mountain cheeses are closely linked to alpine pastures and traditional farming.
Try them on their own, with bread, or as part of a traditional mountain platter with cured meats and local products.
Sometimes a simple cheese board is enough to discover how rich mountain cuisine can be without being complicated.
Gofri: a taste of the Upper Susa Valley
If there is one local speciality you should try during your stay, it is the Gofri, also known as Goffre.
These are thin, crisp waffles cooked on traditional cast-iron irons. They have a long connection with mountain life and were once also eaten instead of bread, particularly during the winter months.
Today they are served both savoury, with cheese and cured meats, and sweet, with honey, jam or chocolate cream.
In Sauze d’Oulx they are such an important part of local tradition that an annual festival is dedicated to them.
Ghenefle: mountain potato gnocchi
Another traditional dish worth looking for is Ghenefle, a potato-based speciality similar to gnocchi and traditionally baked in the oven with mountain cheese.
Recipes vary from village to village, as is so often the case with traditional mountain cooking.
Those small local differences are part of what makes the cuisine of the valley so interesting.
Cabiette from Rochemolles
In Rochemolles, a mountain hamlet above Bardonecchia, you can discover an even more unusual local speciality: Cabiette, also known in different areas as Calhettes or Cahiettes.
They are large potato dumplings traditionally made with raw grated potatoes, cheese and other ingredients that vary according to the village and family recipe.
In Rochemolles, the traditional recipe may include nettles, mountain cheese and rye flour.
It is the kind of dish that tells the story of a mountain community that had few ingredients, but plenty of imagination.
Potatoes, honey, cured meats and local products
The food of the Upper Susa Valley goes far beyond its best-known dishes.
There are mountain potatoes, honey, cured meats, chestnuts, fruit and many other local agricultural and artisan products.
The Gusto Valsusa network brings together producers and businesses working to promote local food and traditional products.
Many of these products can be enjoyed during your holiday or bought to take home.
Mountain wines and liqueurs
Wine is also part of the valley’s food tradition.
The Upper Susa Valley has its own wine-growing heritage, including local varieties such as Avanà. Among the mountain liqueurs, Genepy is probably the best known and most closely associated with the Piedmontese Alps.
A glass of local wine or a small herbal digestif can be the perfect way to finish a mountain dinner.
Where to eat in Oulx
Oulx is an excellent base for discovering the food of the valley.
The town and surrounding area offer restaurants, pizzerias and traditional trattorias where you can enjoy local dishes as well as more contemporary cuisine.
Among the local places you may come across are Trattoria da Cecilia, La Casetta del Gad, La Stella and other restaurants in Oulx and its surrounding hamlets.
And one of the best things about staying in the Upper Susa Valley is that you don’t have to eat in Oulx every night.
You can easily reach Sauze d’Oulx, Cesana, Claviere, Bardonecchia, Melezet and Rochemolles.
Eating in a mountain village
Sometimes the restaurant itself is part of the destination.
A road climbing into the mountains.
A small village.
Stone houses.
An old fountain.
Mountains all around.
And then a table waiting for you.
That is the difference between simply going out for dinner and enjoying a genuine mountain food experience.
After skiing, hiking or exploring the mountains
Mountain cuisine tastes even better after a day outdoors.
After skiing in the Via Lattea.
After a snowshoe hike.
After trekking.
After exploring the mountain villages.
When you come back tired and hungry, a warm local dish becomes part of the holiday itself.
Because mountain food is not only about what you eat.
It is also about when and where you eat it.
Discover the Upper Susa Valley through its flavours
You can visit a fortress.
Hike to an alpine lake.
Ride along an old military road.
Ski in the Via Lattea.
Or sit down to a plate of Ghenefle, try a Gofri with mountain cheese, and finish your dinner with a glass of Genepy.
Different experiences, but all connected by the same place.
The Upper Susa Valley.
And when you stay at La Maison du Coeur in Oulx, every day can become a new discovery.
A mountain to see.
A road to explore.
A village to visit.
And perhaps, in the evening, a new flavour to discover.