There’s no doubt about it: the tramezzino is unmistakably a Turinese glory, with an official date to prove it. In the historic Caffè Mulassano, a small jewel of wooden panelling under the porticoes of Piazza Castello, a discreet brass plaque on the tramezzino display case — in perfect Piedmontese understatement — informs visitors that “In 1926 Mrs Angela Demichelis Nebiolo invented the tramezzino.”
Behind this invention lies the adventurous story of a Piedmontese couple who had emigrated to the USA. Angela Demichelis left for America at the age of 15, in the early 1900s. In Detroit, she met and married Onorino Nebiolo, who was twice her age and ran restaurants and nightclubs with his brothers and brothers-in-law. But the longing to return to Italy was strong (rumour has it that the Nebiolos’ businesses had attracted the attention of the Italo-American mafia).
