Top restaurants flaunt their truffles

[Photo provided to China Daily]

"In Italy, truffles are known as the gift of gods'," says chef Robert Barazzutti of Hong Kong's two Aqua restaurants. "To appreciate the amazing flavor, we present the truffle with a simple homemade egg-yolk pasta and a little cheese or seasoning.

"No more than five ingredients per dish," he adds. That's a standard we've heard from other chefs this month as boxes of the fungal favorite began to arrive on the docks of Shanghai and Hong Kong.

"Tuber magnatum pico (white truffle) needs traditional tagliolini's simplicity," the menu announcement at Opera Bombana says of the pasta dish on its seasonal menu.

"Nature will be the protagonist of avant-garde cuisine," says Aniello Turco, the chef at Mio in Beijing's Four Seasons Hotel, who unveiled his own uber-aromatic white-truffle dishes at a tasting dinner last week.

How special are these fragrant fungi?

The record price for a single white truffle was set in 2007, when Macao casino owner Stanley Ho paid $330,000 for a specimen weighing 1.5 kilograms, discovered by Luciano Savini and his dog Rocco. One of the largest truffles found in decades, it was unearthed near Pisa, Italy, and sold at an auction held simultaneously in Macao, Hong Kong and Florence. In 2010, Ho again paid $330,000 at a truffle auction, this time for a pair of white truffles, including one weighing nearly a kilogram.

Here's a sampling from the truffle menus now on offer around China:

Filetto alla rossini

Blackmore Wagyu tenderloin and foie gras de canard (duck liver) with Madeira sauce is "luxury meets luxury", says the team at Opera Bombana in Beijing. It's part of an a la carte menu available at lunch and dinner; other dishes include Japanese egg confit with Parmigiano Reggiano cream, two delicate handmade pastas, and a chestnut ice cream with caramel sponge. Umberto Bombana, China's original high priest of white truffle, will leave his Hong Kong flagship for ceremonial dinners in satellite restaurants in the weeks ahead－with varying white-truffle menus at each location.

Opera Bombana in Beijing and Otto e Mezzo locations in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Macao.