THE TRUFFLE UNDERGROUND

A rare fungus inspires rapture, deceit, and stealth.

In an entertaining, revealing book debut, Pacific Standard deputy editor Jacobs brings his considerable skills as an investigative reporter to the fiercely competitive business of marketing truffles. Coveted by chefs and wealthy diners, truffles inspire rhapsodic descriptions of their earthy aroma and taste. “There’s something about them that is very primal,” one chef notes. “They get your attention at a very deep emotional level.” Tasting a white truffle, Jacobs reports, proved so intense that he felt transported, “momentarily, into an alternate universe, a place where flavor mattered more than truth and virtue.” Of the hundreds of truffle species, only a handful are edible, and of these, only two generate passionate “culinary fervor”: the rare, pale white truffle, “the culinary holy grail,” and black winter truffles, “the crown jewels,” which sell for an astonishing 500 to 1,000 euros per kilo. The truffles’ rarity and scarcity are the result of a complicated botanical process: Truffles’ spores emit a musk that attracts forest animals, which ingest them and release them as defecation on the forest floor. The spore cluster then needs to find a particular tree root in order to germinate, a process that can take decades; when it burrows into the root’s outer cells, a symbiotic relationship between tree and fungus begins, and through several seasons, if temperature and moisture are optimal, the truffle produces its edible fruit. Truffle hunters rely on specially trained dogs to sniff out their buried quarry, dogs that are vulnerable to stealing or poisoning by competitors. Truffles can be farmed as well as hunted, but competition is just as furious and “suspicion and paranoia” just as pervasive. France and Italy produce the most coveted truffles; some experts look for “the specific aroma that the Italian terroir imparts,” but other traders are not so particular, knowing that they can sell inferior truffles from Morocco, Tunisia, China, and Romania, passing them off as higher quality to buyers who desire “the appearance of wealth.”

A deftly crafted tale of obsessions and true crime in the culinary world.