The White Diamond: The White Truffle Auction in Alba by Devanshi Mody

The annual celebrity Alba White Truffle Auction isn’t without drama. This year the drama was, alas, on a personal scale. The auction yearly generates much hype and I had, naturally, prepared not without the most eager anticipation to grace this event prestigious event. With the most meticulous planning and precaution, nothing could go wrong, one would think.

Except, I missed my flight to Italy. Due to this, my brother (who was doing the images for the event) missed his transfer to Alba because the taxi kept waiting for me and went to seek him rather too late. Consequently, I slept in the Paris Charles de Gaule Airport. My brother slept in the Milan Malpensa Airport. Things had started off disastrously and the truffle auction would have to be a whopper of an event to redress the scale.

White Truffles

And it was. This year, the event itself was perhaps without quite the drama of previous years. For instance, drama ensued a few years ago was amply demonstrated by the tale of the legendary 850g white truffle: auctioned for GBP 28,000 (to a secretive consortium including Mick Jagger, Roman Abramovich, Paul McCartney, Sarah Ferguson and Gwyneth Paltrow in London bidding against Bono, Mel Gibson, Sharon Stone and Elle Macpherson in New York) the world's then most expensive truffle alas putrefied in London’s Zafferano restaurant’s safe, was repatriated to Italy and interred in the grounds of the historic Cafaggiolo Medici castle, but not before an ode was recited, solemnly, in its memory…

Last year the drama surrounded the astronomical price for which the white truffle was sold: nothing less than a staggering EUR 143,000. The world focussed on the fact that the auctioned white truffle (bought in Hong Kong) was more expensive than gold of the same weight.

Is anyone then surprised that the Alba white truffle is gastronomically referred to as “white gold,” when not being hailed as "white diamond." It is, after all, the most expensive food known to mankind… Forget caviar, oysters and all else. At EUR 7000/kg, the Alba white truffle is the ultimate luxury food.

Legendary Notoriety

What makes for the white truffle’s legendary notoriety? Firstly, it is arguably the rarest food known to mankind: the uncultivable Alban truffle grows only in November/December in extremely rare conditions and strictly speaking only in Alba. Further, the Tuscan truffle’s distinctive flavour and unique scent - elusive but penetrating, redolent of ground and wood and vaguely garlicky- holds connoisseurs spellbound.

The appeal of the Alba truffle is further heightened by the fact that truffles where even experts can’t always glean the authentic and ridiculously expensive Alba truffle from the pseudo Umbrian and Eastern European ones that are brought to the Alba truffle market and passed off as Alba truffles. There are no criteria for assessing the quality of the white truffle- not size, shape or colour. But the only way to sniff out the real thing is smell. The more pungent the truffle, the more precious it is.

Buried Treasure

This annually generates the crazy, crepuscular, clandestine hunts for buried treasure. Armed with dogs trained at truffle hunting schools, Trifolau (truffle hunters) embark on arduous missions to unearth “white gold.” The cost of white truffles justifies the efforts.

I enquire of the Director of the Alba Tourist Board if he thinks the prices are justified and he confesses that white truffles are very nice, they might even be the ultimate gastronomic extravagance, but they simply do not warrant the exorbitant prices. This is much more to do with the myth and marketing surrounding the white truffle.

This is perhaps the food of the gods. Or as close as it gets to the gods- after all, “the Queen of Truffles” has been associated with Imperial Rome, the Medicis, the Pope and today with such heavenly bodies as Hollywood stars and Her Royal Highnesses like the Duchess of York.

And the celebrity charity truffle auction sustains the hype. After years of waiting, I finally attended it. The auction is international and annually conducted in 3 different cities in the world, including Alba. This year, the other cities included Merano in North Italy and Tokyo. However, Alba, the home of the white truffle, is the only real place to be. Especially as the glamorous event occurs in the fairytale hilltop Castello Grinzane in Cavour.

Streams of Gold

On the morning of the celebrated celebrity auction the castle is besieged by locals in traditional Medieval garb attempting to recreate some ancient ritualistic practice with their banners, standards and musical instruments. More fascinating, however, are the views from the castle over the Langhe Valley: behold streams of gold, auburn and burgundy flowing down the hills in the form of vine trees.

A glimpse of a village church or castle studding the panorama ever transport one to delight whilst the historic castle itself is a  magical abode. The auction is a private event but it is well worth visiting the castle on another day to enjoy its atmospheric Enoteca and museum. Stay on for lunch or at least coffee and cake at the castle restaurant.

Speaking of restaurants, 2-Michelin-star chef Jean Francois Piege at Paris’s Les Ambassadeurs restaurant who attended the auction last year said of the event, “C’est tres italien.” I didn’t quite understand what he meant then, but I was soon to find out. The auction is certainly a celeb-studded event. But with exclusively Italian celebs. The glamorous impact of the event is perhaps slightly lost on one unfamiliar with the hierarchy of the Italian Who’s Who. But even the foreigner cannot be insensitive to the exquisiteness of the Italian beauty queens summoned to lend glitziness to the auction.

Guests of Honour

Upon their arrival the cameras abandon all to click away at the beauties all too happy to pose. It is somewhat forgotten that the real star of the show is the white truffle itself… By midday the invitees convene in a medieval chamber. Perhaps its magnificence is somewhat diminished by the modern equipment set up for the Live satellite relay between the auctions taking place simultaneously in Alba, Merano and Tokyo.

We also suspect that these walls have not always been accustomed to the Italian “soubrettes,” or show babes Federica Nargi and Costanza Caracciolo young girls engaged to parade around pouting and prettifying the proceedings. They seem to serve no other purpose… And yes, they carried around the 5 truffles on offer for bidders to sniff…

Other VIPs at the auction included an Italian Olympic medallist and award-winning writer from Rwanda Scholastique Mukasonga, guest of honour for literature invited by Grinzane Cavour Prize apart from one of Italy’s most famous chef.
 
Things jazzed up with the arrival of popular Italian TV presenter Ezio Greggio Whose sense of irony and wry humour have endeared him with the public and elicited not a few laughs during the course of the 2 hour auction. Indeed, when Miss Universe 2008, who attended the auction in Tokyo, was featured Live on Satellite TV bearing her bosom in a plunging décolleté, Mr quipped, “Miss Universe too has a fine pair of white truffles…” Let’s hope she hasn’t got them insured like J Lo her bottom. Given the cost of white truffles, the price can only be obscene.

The Crescendo

The prices this year, however, disappointed. There was none of the fervour and fierce competition to outbid rival buyers and the five smaller truffles were auctioned away. The crescendo was built up with ever more glamorous women called upon to preside over the podium during the auctioning of ever more important truffles. Former Miss Italy, the sultry conducted the auction of the penultimate truffle culminating in the summoning of Miss Italia 2000 Tania Zamparo for the auction of the main truffle. The size of the truffle did not compare with the one last year. It was only a mere 500 g… Nor was it overwhelmingly pungent.  The heavy rain this season wasn’t great for the white truffle.

A reluctance to bid in both Italian cities of Alba and Merano was palpable and the truffle was finally bought in Tokyo by a syndicate bidding on behalf of Nikki Hilton, Paris Hilton’s sister. The truffle sold for a mere EUR 24,000 (alas…) and was promptly dispatched via courier to Tokyo. The proceeds from the sale went to charity.
Admittedly, the auction lacked some of the drama and excitement that I had long anticipated. But it’s the credit crunch…

However, drama would come in the days following the auction. At the lunch after the auction I found myself sitting by a 65-year-old Italian who announced to me that he was a “very important journalist” who could be indispensable to my work. I had no reason to distrust so distinguished a personage I encountered at so prestigious an event. Especially as he name-dropped willy nilly, professing intimate friendship with Italy’s most celebrated Michelin-starred chefs whom he promised to present me too…

I would soon embark on a misadventure and learn that he was a hoax on a mission to manipulate a naive foreign journalist so as to eat white truffles in the most expensive Michelin-starred restaurants…

Inspired? See Travel Intelligence's listings for luxury hotels in Piedmont.