RICHARD FRISBIE :: WHITE TRUFFLE DINNER

Dinner at Barbetta Restaurant featuring:
the best  Northern Italian Cuisine, the
“diamonds and jewels of Piemonte Regionale”

Fungi, either aromatic or odiferous, depending on your olfactory genes, are the foods of the gods. The rarest of the rare fungi is the white truffle. A few are found in Croatia and France, but most grow wild in the Peidmont region of Italy where white truffles are more aromatic than elsewhere, and, in general, more pungent and stronger tasting then their black relatives.

Truffle hunting is all about sex. For centuries female pigs were used to find truffles because, to them, the fungi smells like a rutting wild boar. In essence, truffle hunters used a sexually aroused, hungry, porcine divining rod to locate the Holy Grail of fungi. Unfortunately, in their excitement the female pigs often ate what they found. Truffles are too valuable to be pig food. At last year’s international truffle sale, Dr. Ho, the casino magnate I wrote about after visiting Macau, paid the highest recorded price for a white truffle, $100,000 per pound, or $330,000 for a 3.3 lb. specimen. It has been called the “Truffle of the Century”.  It was found using a dog. Today, more and more dogs, called truffle hounds, are trained to replace the pigs. They are increasingly popular because of their great sense of smell and ease of training. As a bonus, unlike the sow, the dogs won’t eat the truffles.

Ferruccio Dardanello, President of Cuneo Chamber of Commerce

Truffle digging season is October and November. Each year the Barbetta Restaurant on 46th Street in Manhattan sends their truffle hounds and truffle hunters into the Piedmont region of Italy, the home of the Slow Food Movement, to search for the prized fungi. Then, Barbetta’s seven chefs create an elegant menu using the “diamonds and jewels of Piemonte Regionale”, Italy’s famous white truffles, along with the foods and wines of Piedmont. The opening dinner is for the loyal patrons, top people in the tourism office, Italian diplomats, and a few of the talented journalists and promising newcomers in tourism promotion. It is the most coveted culinary invitation of the season.

Finding the truffles is only half the work. While black truffles are generally cooked, white truffles are usually cleaned, then shaved, unpeeled and uncooked, in thin slices over mushrooms, risotto, ravioli or game. This year’s menu for Barbetta’s “White Truffles and More” dinner was beautifully prepared and presented, using shaved white truffles in two courses. I was fortunate enough to be there as a guest of the Italian Tourism office to document it for you.

above: Riccardo Strano, Director of the Italian

Government Tourist Board North America

with Barbara Angelakis

below: Barbetta Owner Laura Maioglio

Before we were seated, we congregated in the lounge area, nibbling on passed canapés while enjoying flutes of Metodo Classico Spumante Brut 2004. We numbered about 60, mostly people I did not know. A fellow journalist, Barbara Angelakis of luxuryweb.com, introduced me to the owner, Laura Maioglio. Her father founded Barbetta Restaurant in 1906, making this the oldest family owned restaurant in New York City. She was a gracious hostess, telling me a bit of their history while allowing me to photograph her handsome smiling visage. I’m sorry I didn’t get a photograph of her gold lame' Nikes. Laura looked ready for the next day’s marathon in her Italian footwear. She said that they were her only imported item of apparel. “Everything else is from New York. It’s a New York look.” Then, with the exclamation “Oh, I’m in charge of the truffles!” she hastily excused herself and raced to the kitchen. Even with seven chefs she is so much more than a hostess - she’s quite an amazing woman - one definitely in need of running shoes. Presently she returned, truffles attended to, and we slowly made our way into the dining room to be seated. Here is what we were served:

Gnocchetti ai formaggi Piemontesi
Simply the lightest, moistest and creamiest-textured gnocchi I’ve ever been served - pure puffy potato pillows -  floating in a sauce of butter, cream and Piedmont cheeses, anchored to the plate by the weight of toasted pignoli nuts and shaved white truffles. While some of my dinner companions used forks to immediately combine the flavors on their palate, I picked off some truffles with my fingers to taste their earthen purity. Then I let the wizardry of the chefs work together in my mouth, savoring the pungent, velvety, crunchy meld of textures and flavors they created. Magnificent!



Nido di Quaglia con Fonduta e Uova di Quaglia
This is a creation designed to be photographed before eaten; an innovative way to serve quail eggs as if they were spilled out of the nest in a field. Fried julienned vegetables made up the grassy field where three hard-boiled quail eggs lay. A “nest” of shredded and baked parmesan held a rich and creamy cheese sauce as a vehicle for the second white truffle extravagance. It looked as if the truffles had kicked the quail eggs out of the nest and were making themselves at home. I contemplated this picture as I peeled the eggs, first dipping them in the rich sauce, then crumbling them in with their truffle brothers to be eaten as a whole. Those chefs are geniuses.




At this point, the first wine, Barbera d’Alba “Elena” Riserva 2006, a smoothly full bodied and nicely balanced red I’d grown quite comfortable with was replaced with Barolo “Rocche” Riserva 1999. At first, I thought it a bad move. The wine normally earns high praise, but this first glass tasted just "off" enough that the oenophiles at the table wondered if it was “corked”. Finally we realized that it just needed more time to breathe (I would have preferred it decanted) before the complex rich taste, soft and velvety with plenty of good fruit came through with its satisfyingly long smooth finish. Perfection! That wine really grew on me. It tasted as if it were made for the beef course.


Bue al Barolo con Polenta
Lately I’ve been eating a lot of braised meats. Perhaps it’s the season, or the latest fad, but I’ve had some fun playing with Ropa vieja recipes and some for braised pork. Well, after eating the braised beef at Barbetta’s I have to admit I haven’t been making braised beef at all. Theirs is simply the best of Piedmont’s famously marbled grass-fed beef, braised in the region’s award-winning Barolo wine, with herbs. When you begin with the finest ingredients the sum is greater than the parts. This was fork-tender, buttery beef in a rich red wine sauce. The aroma was the strongest of all the dishes, redolent of the bouquet of that great wine mixed with the slow-cooked beef and polenta cooked two ways. It was a savory whiff of the perfection to follow. It did not mislead; this was heaven.



Carrello di Dessert Piemontesi
Choosing dessert was a challenge. There were more than a dozen offered on a rolling candelabra, each showcased on its own branch. I asked for one that was the most representative of Piedmont. After all, this was a dinner to showcase the Piemonte Regionale of Italy. Even the bottled water came from springs in the Italian Alps. I settled on a chestnut pie. It was a creamy, rich and sweet filling in a crumb crust, with meringue ornaments and an unsweetened whipped cream topping. I added a mixed red fruit (cherries, raspberries and strawberries) sauce for color, and to be able to say I had fruit for dessert. A caffe’ double’ (double espresso) bitter (meaning unsweetened) completed an exquisite meal that can not be duplicated.



When next you are in the theater district looking for a reliable place to break bread, follow your nose along west 46th street to number 321, Barbetta Restaurant. The elegantly appointed and cozy ambiance of this Manhattan landmark will not disappoint you. Let Laura Maioglio introduce you to the food and wine of her ancestral homeland. Enjoy a tradition more than 100 years in the making. Barbetta’s features the finest Northern Italian cuisine the way it is meant to be served, in unhurried quiet elegance.



Food Notes:
Not to be gauche, but it was conjectured that the truffle bill for our dinner was around $18,000, and the total cost of dinner per person around $700. From the Barbetta menu (without truffles) Quail nest hors d’oeuvre $19, Gnocchi $19, Braised Beef $32, Dessert $18, Espresso $5. I did not see a wine list, but I know that the Barolo “Rocche” Riserva 1999 can sell for several hundred dollars a bottle retail. It really is a very good wine. So with tax and tip, without wine, figure $120 per person. Add $40 more if you want soup and salad.

Barbetta Restaurant
www.barbettarestaurant.com

Italian Government Tourist Board

www.italiantourism.com

http://www.turismopiemonte.com/ Piemonte Tourism

Richard Frisbie, FOOD Correspondent:

RICHARD FRISBIE is published twice a month to Gather Essentials: Food. It is a food junkie's take on growing, raising, preparing and - above all else - eating food. Together we’ll explore the trends, addictions, equipment and regional specialties that make up the sometimes mundane and sometimes sublime cooking and dining experience. You can keep up with my other postings and Gather activity by joining my Gather network -- I look forward to hearing from you.

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