Not necessarily. Hostaria Giusti in the center of Modena is a really wonderful, delicious place to have lunch and eat Modenese food. Certain food experiences that are important to the culture of Torino (i.e., chocolate, gelato, the cocktail hour) are better or at least the equal of what you find in the countryside as an experience of these things. And of course it’s a 2-way street.
Depends on what kind of food experience you personally enjoy most. If you want what gets the official imprimatur of “slow food” from the Slow Food editors, you can easily plan an entire trip around eating in places listd in the Osterie d’Italia, so long as you understand why the place received the Slow Food stamp of approval (not always obvious, alas) and are aware that many slow food ingredients will be out of season when you are in the neighborhood. (Fresh white truffles jump out as missing in action in September in the Piemonte.
But it is also the case for the Piemonte countryside that many of the countryside restaurants that are responsible for making Piemonte an internationa eating destination are fairly high-end, and have at least one and maybe 2 Michelin stars. When people sing to the heavens about the Piemonte countryside villages giving them their best food experiences in all of Italy, they are often talking about these higher-end restaurants primarily, and only a smattering of homier trattorie. The food is local at the high end restaurants for sure, and many of the dishes are very old school seasonal classics. But these restaurants are definitely also offering their own chef’s creations, and using very modern restaurant techniques and presentation, offering a mainly “urbane” experience, despite the chalkboard menu, the clods of dirt in the driveway and the vinyard views.
Anyway, you get the picture. I don’t know any way around putting a lot of advance thought into what you want to taste in September and how you want to pace your restaurant eating, and then finding restaurants to suit, or creating meals from the market purchases (some very good eating in Bologna that way). I also think it is quite reasonable to give equal or even greater weight to what you want to experience culturally of northern Italy apart from food, and then think about how much of a mood-killer it might be to travel to remote places or rather down-at-the-heel places without view or bright decor to eat the “recommended meal”. Sometimes if you make a lot of effort to get to some very scenic place in Italy like the lakes, the merely decent restaurant with a famously mesmerizing view is more to the point than historically correct trattoria food off the tour bus parking lot – even if it is overpriced, as the Italians on TripAdvisor will be sure to howl at you.
If you are eating meals in Piemonte countryside with the idea you will drinking more than one glass of strong red wine, best to try to stay within walking or taxi distance, and leave the car parked for the night.
