Truffegeddon, Or How We Set A New Truffle Eating Record At La Toque

Chef Ken Frank of La Toque is a man who loves his truffles.  For 31 years, he has been serving a seasonal Truffle Menu at the peak of the Périgord black season in January and February.  He has lent his culinary talents to the Napa Truffle Festival every year since its inception, serving countless meals laden and larded with these incomparable black diamonds of the food world.

And so, when Ken told me and my truffle-loving dining partner that we had just set a new record for highest per capita truffle consumption in a single meal at La Toque, we could not believe it.  Until we went back through the photographic evidence of our gluttonous rampage.

A proud moment, indeed.

Ken began the truffle gavage with a gift (NO commercial transaction took place) of one of his favorite ingredients, seared to perfection and served with a bacon-wrapped date and aromatic confit orange slice.  Oh yeah, and truffles.  Pairing such a rich item with bacon sounded like it might be gilding the lily, but it really worked -- a seamless interplay of lusciousness, punctuated with smoke and meat and natural fruit sweetness.  Not pictured, to protect the innocent.

Next, we dove into a course of soft-yolked eggs nestled in a raviolo with some truffle slices, which was then bathed in a "sauce" of housemade truffle butter (some of which turned up again later in the meal, spread on the toast accompanying our truffle cheese). These free-range eggs came from Ken's own hens and had been stored next to black truffles for some time, so that the eggs themselves took on the truffle aroma.

Looks like pepper, doesn't it? Nope. That's all truffe.

Departing from the scheduled Truffle Menu, we then enjoyed a special piece of salmon with parsnip puree and braised leeks.  The raw salmon filet had been inlaid with black truffle slices, then slow roasted to succulence and showered with a not insignificant amount of julienned fresh truffle shavings.  Key word: earthy.

View from my post at the Chef's Table.

Ken's dayboat sea scallop with lobster sauce americaine was also truffled up to the max, with a layer of shavings actually inside the scallop, as well as lavishly strewn over the top.  I really liked the surprising combination of rich tomato lobster sauce with black truffle -- umami-rich, but with enough acid to keep it bright.  The scallop, for its part, was absolutely perfect.

Look at that gorgeous sear! The interior remained perfectly cooked, tender and sweet and juicy.

And then, the dish of the night.

Parmesan chawan mushi with oxtail, yellowfoot mushrooms, and truffle soup below.
And that subtle garnish on top.

Never in my life have I seen bigger black truffle shavings. More importantly, however, this dish was outrageously delicious.  Digging below those truffle paving stones, and past the gorgeous golden parmesan custard, you found chunks of tender braised oxtail and earthy mushrooms suspended in a consommé-like broth, scented with more black truffle.  I would never have guessed a chawan mushi dish would be my favorite truffle vehicle, but it was.

Because of the delectable wine pairings that were going on, I don't remember the exact order of the dishes that followed, but here they are:

Ravioli stuffed with seared chicken foie,
 and tossed in a pistou-like sauce with white beans.
This is the point in the meal where we started
eating the truffle shavings like
potato chips.

Boned-out chicken wing stuffed with truffled French-style
farce -- but you aren't really looking at the chicken, are you?

Here's the toast I mentioned earlier. Below that spectacular paving job is the rest of the
housemade truffle butter used in the egg raviolo dish.

La Toque makes its own truffle cheese in season, using young Mt. Tam from Cowgirl Creamery. Ken says the younger ones are best because the flavor is still mild, and won't overwhelm the subtlety of the truffles the way a more pungent, aged version would.  Personally, I think the truffle-shingled toast he served with this cheese course could have stood its ground against most things, but this preparation really let the truffle shine like the star that it is.

And, the money shot.

After such an indulgent and eye-popping feast, Ken sent us off with an elegant and understated truffled mascarpone cannoli with roasted hazelnuts and chocolate accents -- just the right amount of sweetness and cream.  Well-played, sir.

A new record.  A glorious meal.  A gauntlet, thrown.  And all in the name of charity (the Napa Humane Society, to be exact).

More Italian Magic

Last week I had dinner at Alex Italian Restaurant in Rutherford's Rancho Caymus Inn (the original La Toque space).  The name pretty much says it all -- owned by husband and wife Italians Alessandro and Alessia, and a quintessential Italian establishment in a land full of Cal-Ital.  Chic, sleek decor and luxurious leather seating, lots of Italian wines, and of course a menu full of the regional specialties of Liguria and Emilia-Romagna set this place apart in Napa Valley.

The dish of the night for us (and this was a tough race with many worthy contenders) was the octopus salad with shaved celery, olives, red onions, fingerling potatoes, and Ligurian salsa verde.  Ecco la:

Never in my life have I eaten octopus more tender -- and I've eaten a lot of great octopods in my life.  Check that awesome sear on the tentacles!  Between the crusty char on the outside and the supple, almost creamy meat inside, this thing was divine even before it encountered the fresh crunch of celery and the brightness of the herb pesto.  I see this becoming an automatic order every time I visit. 

Alex's executive chef Nick Ritchie helped Michael Chiarello open Bottega, but left Yountville to open Alex with the two Alexes last year.  You can watch him preparing his octopus salad in this video from the Napa Valley Register.

What to drink with this thing of beauty? We had a remarkable Grechetto from Sergio Mottura's porcupine-ridden Poggio Della Costa vineyard in Civitella d'Agliano, and la vita was very dolce indeed.

Sexy candelabra! And porcupine label.

Snuffling Towards The Inaugural Napa Truffle Festival...

Anyone who has engaged me in social conversation for more than five minutes--or read this article I wrote about Truffle Camp last year--knows of my intense passion for truffles. I rave about them at the slightest opportunity, usually in highly charged and inappropriate language.  I insisted upon a full day, driving rain, middle-of-nowhere detour on my trip to New Zealand so that I could spend the night on an isolated truffle farm and meet the crazy English dude trying to farm these musky miracles--and even though I didn't get a single truffle out of the experience (not a single one had grown that year), I was cranked up like a fiend the whole time.

Not surprisingly, then, I freaked out when I heard that Napa was going to host its very own Truffle Festival December 10-12, 2010 at the Westin Verasa.  An entire weekend of rooting around in truffle farms, truffle cultivation seminars, truffle cooking demos, truffle & wine pairing experimentation, and truffle eating benders prepared by a bevy of Michelin-starred chefs within stumbling distance of my home was almost too much for my reptilian brain to process.  But reality struck with the publication of the ticket prices... which made it abundantly clear that I would not be attending any of the main rooting, fondling, or gorging events--or indeed, any part of the festival besides the Epicurean Marketplace. 

Oh, to have $595 for the "cheap seats" Grower-Scientist Festival pass! Or, since I'm dreaming, the full $925 for the could-it-be-more-perfectly-named-in-my-honor Truffle Gourmand pass, which entitles the bearer to play scientist and hedonist, with access to ALL of the festival events... including the seven-course truffle orgy at the hands of a team of celebrity chefs 13 Michelin stars strong.  If ever there were a time for me to find a patron willing to sponsor my art of unbridled truffle lust, this would be it! Alas, with only four days left to liftoff, I suspect I will have to continue "creating" on my own dime.

I want to hate the organizers for pricing the passes so high--and seconds later grovel at their feet to let me into their weekend of blissful delirium--but then they had to go and donate a portion of the ticket sale proceeds to Feeding America and The Hunger Project, and make me feel totally guilty for my selfish gluttony.  Doh!  But good on you, Lexus and The American Truffle Company.

If anyone reading this does get to attend the Festival proper, please take lots of pictures, share them here so I can live vicarious through them, and... please, please... smuggle out a pinch of real Perigord truffle dust for me to nuzzle.

(UPDATE: Divine intervention! I got to go... check out my later post for the story of how cool the festival actually was.)