Extra Credit: Truffles!

I had never seen a truffle in my life until I went to this presentation. The speaker, Chef Pernell, was very enthusiastic about truffles (obsessed may be a more appropriate word). He let us know right away that truffles have been a passion of his since he tryed his first one in the late 1980s. He went through a powerpoint presentation that included everything you would ever want to know about truffles. I learned that a truffle is a type of fungus that can only be found by a female pig because the scent triggers sex hormones. Lately, however, dogs have been trained to sniff out truffles. There are two main types of truffles. White truffles are quite rare and are found mostly in Italy and can be priced as high as $3,000 per pound. Dark truffles are found mostly in France and are cheaper than the white ones but are still priced in the hundreds. I was really surprised about the price. I also learned that truffles are found growing at the base of only certain types of trees (two of which were oak and hazelnut trees). The truffles and the trees have a symbiotic relationship (they both benefit from each other somehow). The presentation included two short videos. One showed how pigs and dogs scavenge the truffles. The other video showed some sort of church ceremony in France where they were passing a basket of truffles around and the people added money to the basket. French people take their truffles seriously. After the presentation, Chef Pernell took us to the kitchen where we all sampled a truffle soup that he prepared. I was impressed by how much I liked it. I am not a huge fan of mushrooms but the truffle soup had a more mild taste that I really enjoyed. He also had chocolate truffles for us to try. These were amazing as well (especially since chocolate is my weakness)! He told us that the name for chocolate truffles was derived from truffles since they look similar (same size and shape). I'm glad I went to the presentation and got to experience truffles!