A nose for the truffle in Italy's Piedmont

On a culinary tour, a visitor savors Piedmont's offerings and searches for a delicacy.

By Catherine Saillant, Los Angeles Times
12:00 AM PST, February 12, 2006

HEAVY mist lingered on the morning of our great adventure — a truffle hunt in the grape-laden hills of the Piedmont region in northern Italy.

Our truffle hunter appeared out of the fog to greet us, strolling up a lovely country road as a brown-and-white mutt trotted at his side. He had on worn black boots, carried a curved walking stick and had deep crinkles on his face. Hollywood could not have produced a more appealing practitioner of the ancient truffle-hunting trade than Beppe Farenetti.

That should have been our first clue.

Yet we were infatuated. Not just with Farenetti but also with the idea of trampling through muddy woods in search of the holy grail of foodies: plugs of white truffles said to be buried here and nowhere else in the world.

A pungent and root-like fungus, truffles are a valuable delicacy, shaved over eggs, noodles, rice dishes, sometimes even raw meat. Black truffles are more commonly found in France, but gourmets prize the rare Italian white truffle, tastier and more fragrant than its European sister.

The retail price for a single ounce of white truffle is about $300, which shows the lengths dedicated foodies will go for a taste.

We had anticipated the hunt, expecting it to be the highlight of our group's weeklong culinary tour of Piedmont, near Italy's northwestern border with France. The 12 in our group — couples, travel buddies and a few singletons — were from the United States, Canada and England.

I had come to Piedmont in late October with Kathy O'Green, a lifelong friend who shares my passion for cooking and travel. We viewed it as the trip of a lifetime for a pair of working Southern California moms eager to chuck the daily stresses, if just for seven days (plus a side trip to Venice).

So far it had delivered. Our tour already had taken us to hilltop caverns where Barolo wines are coaxed into perfection and to villages where makers of local specialties offered us samples of their delicious wares. We had walked through medieval castles and slept in a hill-top former convent dating to the 17th century. Three days into the tour, we still were adjusting our palates and appetites to a busy schedule of three-hour lunches at good inns followed by four-hour dinners at even better restaurants.

Our guide kept us away from tourist traps for an informed look at some of Piedmont's finest food, wine and ancient architecture. The autumn mists that settled over the region's fertile hills and valleys each morning added to the romance.

But this morning's hunt would remind us that, in the eyes of some, all travelers are tourists. And a savvy truffle hunter knows you have to give the tourists what you think they want.

A foodies' week

OUR group was led by Pamela Sheldon Johns, a cookbook author who organizes several tours of Italy's diverse culinary regions each year. Sheldon Johns was in her 30s when she left her job as an Orange County special-education teacher to follow an interest in cooking.

By 2000, she was spending so much time in Italy that she and her husband, Courtney, found a villa in Tuscany and made it their home. Besides food tours, the couple run a bed-and-breakfast on their ivy-covered estate and grow olives.

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