Above: vitello tonnato at the famous Osteria Boccondivino in Bra, Piedmont, where the Slow Food movement was founded in 1986. The town is also home to Slow Food U.

Thanks to my teaching gig at the Slow Food University of Gastronomic Sciences in Piedmont, I’ve been making at least two or more trips to the region every year for the last eight vintages.

That’s been great news for my Jewish boy stomach: Piedmont is home to what is arguably my favorite dish of all times — vitello tonnato.

For the uninitiated, vitello tonnato is garlic- and clove-studded roast veal that has been chilled, thinly sliced, and then topped with a sauce made of olive oil-cured tuna, capers, egg, and anchovy.

Above: homemade vitello tonnato at the home of my good friend and client Michele Marsiaj, owner of the Amistà winery in Nizza Monferrato.

While the origins of the dish are uncertain, most believe that it came about through a conjugation of cured fish (tuna and anchovy), available in Piedmont thanks to its proximity to the sea, and Piedmont’s ranching legacy.

To put it in blasphemous terms, it’s as if roast beef and tuna salad — the favorite dishes of many young male American Jews of a certain age — got together.

Above: old school vitello tonnato at the classic Antico Ristorante Porto di Savona, a crusty but must-experience culinary gem in Turin.

On Wednesday, August 9, at Rossoblu in Los Angeles, Chef Steve Samson, a close friend since college, will be serving vitello tonnato as part of a Piedmont-inspired menu. And I’ll be presenting the wines.

You can view the menu and registration link here. And I’ll be sharing the flight shortly on my blog.

Man, I am SUPER PSYCHED for this dinner. I hope you can join me. I know it will be a great time. Thanks for the support and solidarity. And thanks for loving Italian enogastronomy!