New York restaurateur Francesco Giambelli this week forked over a record $41,000 for a 2.4 pound Italian white truffle, according to auction organizers. We’re not sure what Giambelli plans to do with the fragrant fungus. But we wondered what four local restaurateurs would do if they got their oven mitts on it:
– Matthias Merges, executive chef at Charlie Trotter’s: “We would sell the whole truffle to one table, maybe a four top or six top, and then do a 14-course truffle dinner. We might also do a really nice duck egg pasta dish and some other simple things that really show off the truffle itself. We’d do a nice red beet souffle with white truffle. And for dessert we could incorporate some kind of heirloom apple like Arkansas black into a dish with white truffle.”
– Sandro Gamba, executive chef at NoMI: “A $41,000 truffle? I never cooked with that. But if it were a special one I would try to sell a truffle wedding to somebody with maybe five or six courses.”
– Jackie Shen, executive chef at Red Light: “We’d have rolled and roasted stuffed pork shoulder filled with ground pork mixed with foie gras, ginger, white truffle shavings, caramelized chestnuts and candied apples julienne. Also, white truffle five-spice braised ox tails and some garlic mashed potatoes with a calvados veal stock reduction with white truffle shavings all over the dish. . . . At about $1,200 per ounce it would be a $3,600 dish.”
– Paul Kahan, executive chef at Blackbird: “Nothing . . . because that is too much money to spend for food.” [Fine, fine, but what if you got it for free?] “I’d have dinner for me and 12 of my closet friends and every course would have truffles in it. . . . The night before I would get a sleeping bag and lock me and my wife in a closet and we would sleep in the truffle stench and have trippy truffle-infused dreams.”