PASTICCERIA GALLINA

Pasticceria Gallina on Via Vochieri 16 continues to be appreciated by generations of people of Alessandria. The founder, Giuseppe Gallina, begins the business in 1906 as a pastry shop assistant in pasticceria Chiabrera of Alessandria before moving to Turin in 1910. Following a couple of years of apprenticeship with other peers he moves to Naples to the laboratory of Master Coccia, author of different books on sweets, where he hones his pastry-making skills. Called to arms during the first world war, he returns to Naples for some time and then moves first to Rome and then to Genoa where he gets married. Then, he decides to return to Alessandria where he opens a small laboratory on via Palestro in 1935. A few years later he is joined by his son Lorenzo to whom he hands down the art of pastry making. In 1968, Lorenzo moves definitively to via Vochieri 46, where he expands the business with his wife Anna, and it continues to grow with sons Giuseppe, Fulvio and Angela, and most recently with his grandson Emilio, who is the fourth generation of the Gallina family. The business is deeply rooted in the purest pastry tradition of our region, where all the products are faithfully made according to ancient recipes. The ingredients are of high quality, starting with the rigorously Piedmontese hazelnut, called “tonda gentile delle langhe”, recognized by its aroma and its unmistakable flavor. The chocolate is chosen from among the best firms on the market and the butter is produced in the area of Cuneo, famous for its dairy cows. Together these choices allow to offer customers a high-quality product. The “Baci Gallina” cookies are famous, made as tradition wants by the skillful hands of the pastry makers, and they enclose all the flavor and aroma of our land: a product with a registered trademark which is a little bigger in the oval shape than the traditional bacio di dama cookie. The cocoa is in the dough so compared with the traditional bacio it is darker. The packaging is also handmade: each bag and each box are filled with the hand-wrapped baci. The Citadel in the name pays homage to the fortress of Alessandria. It is a hazelnut cream where the hazelnut spread is joined by sugar and cocoa, it does not contain additional fats and preservatives. Another specialty is the amaretti Gallina. Soft cookies, made without the addition of egg white, they are made of bitter almonds, sweet almonds, sugar and inverted sugar. Gallinotti al rum are inebriating cookies characterized by a dark chocolate dough, candied chestnuts and rum: all covered with a crispy chocolate shell. All this together combined with the kindness and respect for the customer lays the foundations for the success of the Gallina pastry shop, a legend in the Alessandria business world