Trufflemania Extends to the $200 Baked Potato

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The New York Sun

Get the Mylanta ready. The city’s gourmets eagerly awaiting the arrival of one of the year’s great delicacies of haute cuisine — the white truffle — should prepare themselves for a stiff case of financial heartburn. The price for truffles is ballooning, in some instances by as much as 33% to 50% above a year ago.

The newest wrinkle in this year’s truffle season — a traditional three-month annual dining experience that kicks off in October and runs to around Christmas — is the debut of a $200 baked potato at the Four Seasons restaurant that’s sprinkled with white truffles. That’s the highest price it has ever charged for this item and is up about 33% from the $150 it charged for the fancy spud a year ago.

Why $200? Because, as one Four Seasons captain explains it, “Try buying truffles; they’re running us $2,500 a pound.” Last year, they ran about $2,000 a pound.

An expenditure of $200 for a baked potato may seem like a prohibitive price, but not so at the Four Seasons. “We’re selling a lot of them,” says co-owner Julian Niccolini. The restaurant, he says, is also enjoying brisk sales on portions of pasta and risotto served with a shaving of truffles. Each of these dishes also runs $200.

A check of a number of city restaurants that have already begun offering truffles — the best in the world are from Alba, Italy — finds they’re initially paying anywhere from $1,950 to $2,500 a pound. For a similar amount, you can rent a one-bedroom apartment for a month.

At Sistina, a leading Upper East Side Italian restaurant, owner Giuseppe Bruno is currently paying $1,950 a pound for Alba truffles, versus about $1,300 to $1,400 last year. That’s an increase of as much as 50%, which he attributes in part to the strength of the euro versus the dollar, higher duty, and the fact that demand is high and there’s little product around.

True, prices are considerably higher. But, says Mr. Bruno, “You’ve got to have truffles because they’re a very hot market and some customers go crazy for them.” One celebrity who will be joining the rage of holding special truffle parties at the restaurant is Barbara Walters, who will be hosting a truffle dinner for 10 this Sunday. Last I checked, I’m not invited.

Sistina’s truffle pricing runs $120 for an order of pasta or risotto, versus $90 last year, and $60 for a half portion, up from $45 in 2005. A salad with a sprinkling of truffles will run you $60.

Mr. Bruno figures as the season wears on and as other Italian regions such as Tuscany and Umbria produce lesser quality truffles, more product will be available and his prices should come down a bit.

Nicola Civetta, the amiable owner of Primavera, the city’s premier power Italian restaurant, estimates diners who can afford this delicacy — essentially a fleshy edible potato-shaped fungi that grows underground and is sniffed out by pigs or specially trained dogs — will spend between $20 million and $25 million this year on a variety of truffle dishes at upscale eateries throughout the Big Apple.

He figures Primavera will serve about 2,000 portions of truffles this season, equivalent to sales of between $75,000 and $100,000. Demand, he notes, continues to grow with each passing season. “I’ve had around 20 people a night asking me for truffles for about a week,” he says.”They just can’t seem to wait.”

Indicative of the growing demand, Mr. Civetta observes, people have made special trips to Primavera in the past from such faraway places as England, Texas, Oregon, and Washington, D.C. to partake of the Big Apple’s truffle season.

This season’s prices at Primavera run $95 for an order of pasta or risotto (or $50 for a half a portion) with a shaving of truffles and $49 for a salad with a sprinkling.

Mr. Civetta figures this year’s truffle sales should be buoyed by an especially cooperative European weatherman who has provided plenty of rain. All that rain has moisturized the soil, leading to the creation of very pungent and firm truffles. “The city’s gourmets should be in truffle heaven this year,” he says.

At Il Postino, another winning Italian dining spot, co-owner Luigi Russo notes that every year is a record truffle year because of rapidly swelling interest. “Years ago we pushed them, but now customers demand them,” he says. As such, he thinks his truffle business this year could easily rise 15% to 20% from a year ago. “The problem,” he says, “is if you shave truffles with a heavy hand — which is what every customer wants — you wind up losing money.”

Jean Georges, Alain Ducasse, and Daniel — three of the city’s leading gourmet restaurants — tell me truffles will soon be on the way. A spokeswoman at Daniel set the pricing mood when I asked her what a truffle dish would cost. “Just bring money,” she said.

If you’re charitable and a truffle lover, a November 16 dinner at San Domenico on Central Park South may be just the thing. For $300 a person, the restaurant will offer a broad assortment of truffle dishes and hold a truffle auction. Owner Tony May, who has conducted these dinners for 12 years, hopes to raise about $30,000,which will be donated to an Italian scholarship fund.

If you’re a truffle lover but can’t afford the hefty price tag, you might want to try a bottle of truffle-flavored oil from Citarella, one of the city’s gourmet food stores, at $25.99, or a package of truffle-flavored pasta at Grace’s Marketplace at $7.99.

Likewise, if you’d prefer a baked potato and can forego the Four Seasons ambiance and truffle garnish, they’re available at food carts along Broadway and 6th Avenue for a mere $3. And that price gets you a nice cheese topping.


The New York Sun

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