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Food

Chef's Table: On a mission with the truffle master

By GUI ALINAT
Published August 16, 2006

I am heading to the medieval mountain town of Anghiari, Italy, to meet with Moreno Moroni, considered by most Tuscans to be the world's authority in truffle hunting. The countryside around Anghiari is dotted with ancient woods, Romanesque monasteries and medieval fortresses.

Below me are the Tiber and Sovara valleys, the rolling hills of the Chianti region, whose slopes offer a natural amphitheater for white and black truffles in winter and smaller black truffles in summer.

I recognize the woods full of wild mushrooms, wild boars and jackrabbits; a flat tire landed me here years ago. Oak trees abound, with their high tops and dark expanses underneath, perfect habitat for truffles growing underground, drawn to the roots of the oaks. I am getting closer to my guide, the president of the truffle association of the Arezzo valley. Moroni is a truffle guru, if you will.

I expect a legendary hunter to pop out of the woods behind me, with a pig on leash and a wooden stick in hand. But truffle hunting nowadays is not that mystical. Moreno cruises up in a Land Rover, smiles at us while talking on his cell phone and addresses me in fluent French, my native language.

While riding to a secret location, Moreno and I discuss the current truffle season, and he tells me about his life as a park ranger his job and a truffle hunter (his passion).

I haven't seen the dogs yet (in case you wonder, pigs are out for truffle hunting), but I can smell and hear them in the back of the Land Rover. We drive up a dirt road, past the last line of olive trees and into the oak forest.

We begin our hunt. Alba, one of the two dogs, is released. The dog is named after a famous truffle town in Italy's Piedmont. Alba leaps out and sets herself on the side of the dirt road, oblivious to us, sniffing away and running from tree to tree. All during the one-hour hunt, Moreno talks nonstop to Alba. He encourages her lovingly, not unlike a father, revealing an emotional connection between them; shouting at times, whispering at others, all the while talking with me.

As Moreno explains, the hunter finds the spot; the dog finds the truffle. The truffle master guides Alba toward a stand of trees, talks and encourages her, shows her a potential spot. Vai, vai, vai (go, go, go), Moreno says intensely, interjecting with pig sounds and weird noises I imagine a shepherd would use to gather his flock of sheep. Dai, Alba, dai (Give me, Alba, give me).

Soon enough, Alba frenetically digs and unearths a good-size truffle. Moreno pushes her away so she doesn't eat or damage it. Underground, many other truffles probably lay close by, but Alba always goes for the biggest one first, as it has the most pungent scent. Moreno may or may not, according to his respect for nature and concerns for the size of the other finds, decide to unearth more at this spot. Ultimately, we will find eight of good size.

After our hunt in the woods, we dine at Ristorante La Nena in Anghiari. Abundance is the word here, and I have never seen that much truffle in my life. Every dish is enhanced with fresh truffles, and some are available for diners to grate over their own dishes. There I find a simple, yet rigorously regional cuisine. It's more tovaglia a quadri (checkered tablecloth) than sleek white linens and Riedel glasses. Pasta is made by hand with wild, earthy truffle freshly grated over it. The local beef, chianina, simply grilled, goes with porcini mushrooms from the local woods. In other words, La Nena humbly offers what the land gives us. And it's a pleasure for diners.

The truffle guru would be proud.

Chef Gui Alinat welcomes questions about cooking and will respond to those of general interest in future columns. Sorry, he can't take phone calls or answer individual requests. Send questions to him in care of Taste, St. Petersburg Times, P.O. Box 1121, St. Petersburg, FL 33731, or e-mail him at chefgui@chefgui.com Please include your name and city of residence.

[Last modified August 15, 2006, 09:48:56]