Grissino torinese
Thin, crunchy bread stick that tradition traces to the Savoy court in Turin at the end of the seventeenth century, made for the young Vittorio Amedeo II.
The grissino torinese (Turin breadstick) is the thin, dry and crunchy bread stick that tradition traces to Turin at the end of the seventeenth century, at the court of the Savoy. The name comes from the Piedmontese grissìn or ghersìn, derived from ghersa, «row»[1]; another explanation links it to the German Griesschen[2]. Born as a table bread, it spread throughout Italy and abroad, where it often replaces bread, and in Italian it has also become a figure of speech for a very thin person[2].
A bread for the young duke
The story of its origins revolves around Vittorio Amedeo II, heir of the House of Savoy and, as a very young duke, of fragile health: thin, without appetite, often ill. To get him to eat, the court physician Teobaldo Pecchio, from Lanzo, is said to have had light, crumbly bread sticks prepared. Mole24 places the invention in 1675 and attributes it to Pecchio alone[3]; the more widespread version instead points to 1679 and places alongside the physician the baker Antonio Brunero, who is said to have taken care of the baking[4]. The reason, according to tradition, was digestibility: the bread of the time, often undercooked, sat heavy on the young prince's stomach[5].
«Sapevate che i grissini sono nati a Torino? Creati dal panettiere di corte per Vittorio Amedeo II, che non digeriva il pane poco cotto dell'epoca.»
The quotation, which appeared in a report on Turin's food culture, sums up the version told to visitors today[5]. A playful reading has also grafted itself onto the story: the duke, strengthened by the breadsticks, is said to have grown «tough» enough to withstand the French in the siege of Turin of 1706 and become king[3].
The dates, however, are not the only point in question. An article from the same outlet recalls a mention from 1643 that would place these bread sticks in the area of Chivasso, before their arrival in Turin with Brunero in 1679[6]. The physician's home town has not forgotten its fellow citizen: in Lanzo Torinese a plaque marks Pecchio's house[4], and in September 2026 the municipality began the process of naming an alley after him, the «Vicolo Teobaldo Pecchio»[7].
«Le petit bâton de Turin»
From the court the breadstick quickly passed to the city's tables and to travellers. According to tradition, Napoleon Bonaparte too was an admirer and called it «le petit bâton de Turin», the little stick of Turin[6]. By the nineteenth century the breadstick was already considered one of the products representing Piedmontese land, together with rice and wine.
An episode from 1853 shows this. In piazza Paesana, today's piazza Savoia, stands the obelisk celebrating the Siccardi laws, with which the Kingdom of Sardinia had abolished ecclesiastical privilege and other clerical rights; the inscription bears the date 4 March 1853[8]. Under the monument a wooden box was buried containing issues 141 and 142 of the Gazzetta del Popolo, which had promoted the subscription, coins of the time, a kilogram of rice, a bottle of Barbera and a bundle of breadsticks: a small time capsule in which rice, wine and bread stood for the region's products[9].
Rubatà, stirato and relatives
Besides the stirato breadstick, Piedmontese tradition also knows the rubatà, linked above all to Chieri. In 2015, during the festival dedicated to Freisa wine, the town offered the «traditional Rubatà breadsticks of Chieri» paired with the local wine and organised a workshop on how to make them, run by Pro Chieri and the Associazione Panificatori Chieresi[10].
The family extends beyond Turin. In the Casale area of Monferrato, the grissia is made: a hard-dough bread with lard and olive oil, shaped into small cylinders of 25-30 centimetres and keeping for up to four days; the Slow Food Foundation, which has included it in the Ark of Taste, suggests that the name may recall the crunchy crust of the breadstick, though the origin is not certain[11]. In the city the breadstick also enters the kitchen as an ingredient: the grissinopoli, a veal cutlet breaded with Turin breadsticks, is listed among the products that the Denominazione Comunale established by the city council on 14 June 2021 intends to promote[12].
Between the artisan bakery and industry
Alongside the bakers who still make it by hand, the breadstick has a long industrial history in Piedmont. Among the 25 new «Maestri del Gusto» chosen for the 2021-2022 two-year period by the Chamber of Commerce of Turin together with Slow Food is also a baker specialised in coloured breadsticks[13]. The sector has also known crises: in Alba the Barbero breadstick factory went bankrupt in the summer of 2013; at the end of 2014 around fifty employees saw their special redundancy fund coming to an end, while around thirty had been hired by Nuova Unibread, which since July 2013 had been running three plants, including Candelo and Garessio[14].
A symbol of the city
The breadstick appears among the specialities that Turin presents to visitors: on the occasion of the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest, Piedmont's tourism promotion mentioned it alongside vermouth and gianduiotti[15]. Precisely because it has become an emblem, the breadstick also lends itself to irony: in 2017 il Fatto Quotidiano, recounting Turin's decline after the loss of its role as capital and the downsizing of FIAT, titled a piece «Milano pigliatutto, a Torino restano solo i grissini (forse)» («Milan takes it all, in Turin only the breadsticks are left (maybe)»)[16].
A more affectionate summary was offered to visitors of the Salone del Gusto in 2016 by La Stampa, which recalled Carpano vermouth, Eataly and the bicerin: «This is where the tramezzino was born, and breadsticks are another of our musts», wrote Rocco Moliterni[17].
Related articles: Bicerin
Pages linking here
Sources
- Treccani
- Sapere.it (De Agostini)
- Mole24 — 29 September 2011
- Mole24 — 16 April 2026
- Slow Food (rassegna stampa, da «In Viaggio») — 1 October 2016
- Mole24 — 20 May 2019
- Comune di Lanzo Torinese — 10 September 2026
- Mole24 — 21 May 2019
- Mole24 — 18 May 2012
- Slow Food (rassegna stampa, da Tigulliovino.it) — 1 June 2015
- Fondazione Slow Food
- CittAgorà – Consiglio comunale di Torino — 14 June 2021
- Slow Food — 19 November 2020
- Gazzetta d'Alba — 3 December 2014
- TorinoClick – Città di Torino — 5 May 2022
- il Fatto Quotidiano — 18 September 2017
- La Stampa (rassegna stampa Slow Food) — 22 September 2016