457° Fiera fredda – Fiera Nazionale della lumaca piemontese

In 1569 Borgo San Dalmazzo obtained from Duke Emanuele Filiberto di Savoia the establishment of a fair in honor of the patron saint Dalmazzo, martyred on 5 December. Since then the Fiera Fredda has been a meeting point every year for all the inhabitants of the nearby valleys: here tourists and gourmet enthusiasts take advantage of the restaurants in the city and inside the fair spaces to taste traditional dishes. The stars of the event are snails, especially the Helix Pomatia Alpina, which in the Maritime Alps has found its natural habitat. Local restaurateurs create new recipes presented in the gastronomic review “Sotto il segno della lumaca”, where delicious menus based on snails and local typical products are offered for the entire period before and after the fair. One curiosity is the use of a nail to remove the boiled snails from the shell and dip them in the typical spicy sauce. During the fair days, gastronomy enthusiasts can meet local exhibitors, cooks, snail farmers in the exhibition pavilion and follow the show cooking to learn from the chefs the secrets of their recipes.