“The French black truffle is considered the finest
of the edible fungi and has a place in French cooking prized for its unique
flavour and intoxicating aroma”
Brillat Savarin, 19th century French
writer
The
truffle has had a chequered history stretching back to antiquity. It has been a
mineral, a plant created by thunder and lightning, and, as ascetic clerics put
it about in the Middle Ages, a monstrous creation of the devil. In the meantime
we have grown a bit wiser.
The
truffle belongs to the species of ascomycetes fungi. Actually, what has us
rolling our eyes and searching for words is not the fungus, but its fruiting
body or the result of subterranean sexuality. The actual fungus mycelium
creates a vast network of hyphae threads that extend many meters in the ground
and when the hyphae of different fungal branches meet, the result is the tuber
in question; assuming the weather has been kind and the soil contains humus and
chalk.
What
makes the matter even more complicated, and cultivation correspondingly more
ticklish, is the phenomenon of mycorrhiza. This is the close symbiotic
relationship that the filament networks of fungi and tree roots enter into. A
regular two-way trade goes on between them. The truffle supplies nitrogen,
phosphorus, potassium and similar goodies, while the tree reciprocates with
carbohydrates. But the truffle does not enter into this arrangement with just
any old tree. No, it must be a maple, a birch, a hazel or an elm.
Incidentally,
the truffle’s name stems from the fact that it sets up home, inconsiderately,
some 5 to 30 cm deep in the ground. This can cause the surface above it to rise
slightly, a lifting that medieval people came to describe with the late Latin
term “terra tuffolae”. Later this became progressively contracted and
transformed into “tartuffole, tartufo”(Italian) “truffe” (French) and “truffle”
(English).
The only fresh truffles available
anywhere in the world at this time of year were unveiled to the public at
Claude’s restaurant in Sydney last Thursday night. Tim Pak Poy flew down to
Tasmania to help Duncan Garvey and the team from Perigord Truffles of Tasmania,
to unearth this year’s first crop of the Australian production of French black
truffles (Tuber melanosporum).
I met Duncan Garvey a few years
ago and listened to his vision of cultivating truffles in Australia and I must
admit I was a ‘non-believer’. It had never been done successfully anywhere in
the world and there seemed to be a lot about truffles no one knew or could
explain scientifically. Duncan, a Tasmanian with an incredible vision and the
tenacity of an angry terrier, took a huge gamble and spent endless time in
France talking to scientists, agriculturists, farmers, truffeliers, listening and
learning. He came back to Tasmania and started inoculating trees with the black
truffle spores. Within a few years he had proof that it could work. I watched
his face light up when he had confirmation that the first tuber had been found.
Now, a few of years later he collected 3 kg in the first week and yesterday
half a kilo in just one day!
Traditionally, fresh French
truffles are only available in the Northern Hemisphere winter (December,
January and February). Now they are available, from Australia, to the world’s
best restaurants during the months of July, August and September. This is
outstanding news for fine dining restaurants like Claude’s, who scour the
country for the best produce available. Dishes using ”fresh” truffles, are
usually made with truffles flown in, at great expense, from Europe, arriving in
Sydney eight to nine days after harvesting. Now, according to chef/owner Tim
Pak Poy, “Fresh truffle dishes can now be served in Australia within 24 hours
of the truffles being pulled from the ground”.
Perigord Truffles of Tasmania is
the first company in Australia to develop a truffle industry. They have
established inoculated forests in Tasmania and now expanded into the Southern
Highlands of NSW, Yass, Tumbarumba, Oberon and in the Orange / Bathurst
areas. The site of the first truffle
harvest was one of the original sites where Perigord Truffles of Tasmania have
produced the inoculated trees.
Perigord Truffles of Tasmania
started in 1992. Today they are producing truffles from just six-year-old hazel
trees, in free-draining, grainy, relatively poor soil with a pH of 7 ½ to 8.
The French black truffle is
produced when the spores of the fungus Tuber
melanosporum attach to the roots of oak and hazel trees to form a symbiotic
relationship. The edible portion forms during autumn, and harvesting takes
place in the winter once the French black truffle has matured. Trained dogs do all the finding and man does
all the eating.
The
Australian truffle smells unlike any truffle I have ever encountered, due to
its origin from hazel trees. Once you leave it exposed for a little while, you
can detect the typically sulphhydral, pongy overtones reminiscent of the white
truffle from Italy. Leave it a little longer and the aroma of the French black
truffle, a smell of cognac, mandarin peel and pyrroline, becomes dominant. The Australian truffles are far superior in
aroma to any imported fresh truffle. Interestingly, truffle aroma is
inexhaustible to the human nose. (If we smell violets we are immediately odour
blind for approximately 20 minutes, not so with truffles.)
Duncan has also been importing
around 40 kilos of truffles for the last few years from France, every European
winter and he told the amusing story that Australian chefs didn’t like to pick
the truffles with worm-holes. Asking the French about this, they answered that
certainly the truffles with the wormholes were the best ones, do the worms not
have first choice?
Legendary chef Pierre Koffmann,
on a visit to Sydney a few weeks ago, commented after eating at Claude’s that
surely, would Claude’s be situated anywhere in Europe, it would certainly earn
three Michelin stars. High praise indeed! Make sure you do get a chance to
taste these rare culinary treasures in the coming weeks. Tim’s ability to
produce uniquely Australian dishes, using classical techniques will surpass
anything you have tasted before.
When asked what he thought of
this year’s first few truffles, Tim’s reply was, “Bloody exciting stuff” and
someone else added “and no GST on truffles either” (yet?)
Duncan Garvey’s vision? To walk
past one of the three star restaurants in France and see fresh Australian
truffles on the menu. I am sure he’ll get there. Mind you, right now he’s too
busy seeing, touching and smelling his dream!
To Duncan: You deserve this! My
congratulations and respect!
To Tim: Save me some, I’ll be
there!
Contact details:
Mr. Duncan Garvey
Co Chairman, Perigord Truffles of
Tasmania
Phone: 03 6266 4213
Mobile: 0419 341 906
Fax: 03 6266 4012
e-mail: duncan@perigord.com.au
Web: www.perigord.com.au
Mr. Tim Pak Poy
Claude’s Restaurant
Phone: 02 9331 2325
e-mail: timpakpoy@bigpond.com
Web: http://www.claudes-dev.tnd.com.au/main.jsp?qref=12