Set up by the master-confectioners Stratta and Reina, the café is an institution for all those who love pastries and, especially, sweets. Invoices made out to, and stamped by, Count Cavour for his receptions at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are jealously preserved in the museum in Santena. A official supplier to the Royal Household of Savoy and awarded countless honours that are proudly displayed on antique boxes, this nineteenth-century gem has maintained its Charles Albert interiors, furnishings and original wooden facade, all beautifully restored in 2010.
2547 lire and 60 cents for 29 kg of marrons glacés, 18 of sorbet, 37 of candied fruit, pastries, preserves, and meringues: this was the memorable invoice from Stratta paid by Count Cavour in 1860 for a reception at the Foreign Ministry.
In 1959, when her family took over Stratta, Adriana Monzeglio started looking after the shop, while her sisters took charge of the banqueting. It is to her exquisite taste that we owe this refined, most delicate of cakes, which has been adored for decades. It often graces wedding receptions: sponge cake with "Adri" egg custard, strawberries, raspberries, and a dash of raspberry cream, topped with a dusting of icing sugar. (Francesca Pasini)
These are probably the world’s only soft-centred sweets still entirely made by hand. The original recipe dates from 1836 and the process involves thirteen carefully monitored steps, at the end of which the sweets are wrapped, using a semi-automatic machine made in 1933. Their pastel colours then brighten the window of the café. Stratta sweets come in an impressive range of more than thirty soft-centred and hard varieties: thirteen with fruit fillings and two with mint, the same number of hard centres, as well as vanilla and other delights. These are poured sweets, a technique that gives the crunchy sugar coating a translucency that reveals the drop of fruit preserve inside. This filling is prepared to a special recipe so that, when the sweet melts in the mouth, it gives a faint sensation of bitterness, in contrast to the sugar surrounding it. Stratta sweets are slightly larger than “modern” varieties. This is because they are made by hand. A characteristic that makes them like no other. (Francesca Pasini)
Soft and delicate on the palate, Giandujotti by Stratta are an exquisite combination of select raw materials and meticulous preparation. Just as they were in 1867, when the "Giandujotto" was first created for the local carnival, taking its name from the "Gianduja", the stock character of Turin. The vintage recipe has always remained the same, with a careful balance of the three secrets that make a quality giandujotto so special: the variety of hazelnut, the percentage of hazelnuts, and the type of cocoa solids used. The Nocciola Gentile Trilobata del Piemonte IGP hazelnut is normally used, lightly roasted and in very high percentages. Light roasting gives a very delicate flavour with no bitter after-taste. This requires a high percentage of nuts in order to ensure that their taste is not dominated by that of the cocoa. The cocoa solids come exclusively from high-quality production areas: the cocoa from South America and cocoa butter from Africa. Added flavourings have no place in the recipe and, since hazelnuts are a fruit, there will be slight variations from one batch to the next, depending on seasonal disparities. (Francesca Pasini)
