Secret Ingredient No. 2

The next secret ingredient is truffle oil which does not really need introduction thanks to "My Restaurant Rules 2005" reality TV restaurants.

Three of the five restaurants use truffle (presumably the oil infusions) in their European style menu items, namely:

"Pink Salt risotto with green asparagus, snow peas, truffle & tomato coulis" from Pink Salt, New South Wales

"Truffled mashed potatoes" from Restaurant Louvre, Queensland

"Vincisgrassi Maceratesi, (18th Century recipe), cepe, proscuitto lasagna with white truffle oil" from the Greedy Goose, South Australia.

According to the local shops actual truffles are hard to get and are too expensive for day to day home cooking. So it's time to check the best authority on this matter, Stephanie Alexander's "Cooking and Travelling in South West France", 2002.

According to the book, truffles are AUD$1800 per kilo, two and a half times the French price, and Simon Johnson (gourmet food distributor) retails large 100 g can for AUD$275. Truffles are fungi, known for their potent flavour and intoxicating earthy perfume. Grown at the roots of certain tree species in France, the fungi are located by sniffer dogs and pigs.

Truffles are now cultivated in New Zealand, South Eastern Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania. An electronic truffle finder called "E-nose" is being trialed. Truffle cultivation in Western Australian started in 1997, and in July 2003 The Wine and Truffle Co, Manjimup, Western Australia produced it's first crop of truffle. The following was reported in The Australian newspaper:

Temperamental little fungi
THE CURIOUS COOK
By Cherry Ripe
April 16, 2005

"The Wine and Truffle Company at Manjimup in Western Australia boasts what is claimed to be Australia's biggest plantation – 13,000 trees on 21ha. In the winter of 2003 it harvested its first truffle from under an oak tree planted in 1997. It weighed 160g, the size of a cricket ball. Last year it harvested 50 truffles (4kg in total), the largest of which weighed 480g – approaching the size of a rockmelon.

With barely enough to supply demand, the entire harvest went to local Perth restaurants (such as Frasers, The Loose Box and Jackson's) for $2000 per kilogram."

The questions are, how is truffle oil use and what does it taste like. Some health conscious diners indicate truffle oil is splashed too generously on top of the Greedy Goose's Vincisgrassi Maceratesi lasagna. Recipes often call for teaspoons to tablespoons of truffle oil for flavouring soups, salads, potatoes, eggs, pasta, roasts, and anything under the sun which is remotely French related. It goes back to earlier secret ingredient comment that if vegemite is to Australian, then truffle (and truffle oil) is to the French.

There is only way to find out about the taste and that is to test drive a few drops of white truffle oil in a Jamie Oliver inspired egg and bacon on toast breakfast. After many kilometres of driving around Perth, a 60 mL bottle of white truffle flavoured extra virgin olive oil for AUD$13.99 was located. Needless to say, the conclusion is that a few drops of the oil overpowered the flavour of the fresh egg!

Truffle oil is definitely not something suited to home cooked food and is best left to the snotty diners at French or derivative restaurants. From here the case is put to rest for truffle fans to rave and rant.