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The Mystique, Money and Madness of Truffles | Jane Black | Preview
•Restaurant Guys•Episode 228
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This is a Vintage episode from 2006.
Why This Episode Matters
Why one of the world's most prized ingredients commands extraordinary prices.
How truffle cultivation began challenging the romantic image of hunters searching the woods with trained dogs.
Why aroma, scarcity and spectacle are as important to the allure of truffles as flavor.
What happens when restaurants get their hands on thousands of dollars' worth of an ingredient that doesn't stay fresh for long.
Banter
Mark Pascal and Francis Schott begin with a tale of New Jersey lobster justice that makes Maine's system of informal fishing rules look positively genteel. A territorial dispute involving lobster pots somehow progresses to gunfire, arson and a neighboring boat unfortunately parked in the wrong slip.
Then, reports of people eating, and even cooking and driving, while asleep lead Mark to identify the true indignity: consuming thousands of calories without even getting to remember the meal.
The Conversation
Food writer Jane Black joins Mark and Francis after traveling through Spain to report on the changing world of truffles.
The romantic picture is familiar: a hunter and his dog wandering through the woods in search of an elusive underground treasure. What Jane found instead were truffle orchards, inoculated trees and farmers trying to turn an unpredictable delicacy into a viable agricultural business.
They explore why truffles became so scarce and expensive, how a former peasant food became one of dining's ultimate luxury ingredients, and why their remarkable aroma may matter more than their actual taste. Jane and the Guys also get into the sensual reputation of truffles, the theater of shaving them tableside and the questionable proliferation of truffle oil.
Then come the cautionary tales: an enormously valuable white truffle purchased at a charity auction that was locked in a safe and allowed to rot, and Francis's considerably more personal horror story about a chef who received thousands of dollars' worth of beautiful fresh truffles—and immediately preserved them in oil.
2026 update: At the time of this conversation, successful cultivation of the prized Italian white truffle (Tuber magnatum) remained elusive. Researchers have since documented controlled production of the species in a French orchard.
Guest Bio
Jane Black is a food journalist who covers food, culture, politics and sustainability. At the time of this interview, she was food editor at Boston Magazine and had written for publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post, BusinessWeek and Newsweek International. She later became a staff writer at The Washington Post and co-host of the James Beard Award-winning podcast Pressure Cooker.
Timestamps
0:00 New Jersey vigilante lobster justice 4:35 Sleep eating, Ambien and forgotten calories 7:20 Jane Black enters the changing world of truffles 12:00 How truffles went from peasant food to luxury 15:00 Why truffles smell like sex—and why aroma matters 22:20 The $35,000 truffle disaster, Francis’s truffle tragedy and the future of cultivation
Info
Jane’s article on truffles
“Cultivating a Mystique,” The New York Times (2006)
