If you’ve been smelling something in the air lately, don’t blame your neighbour – it’s white truffle season, and we know just the place to indulge in the aromatic ingredient also known as white gold.
ICYMI, on 10 November 2024, Hong Kong-based Italian fine diner Castellana hosted the 25th World Alba White Truffle Auction charity gala dinner, where the auction of a 908 gram alba white truffle helped push the total amount raised to HK$3 million (US$385,522). The funds went towards Mother’s Choice, a charity that supports vulnerable children and teenage mothers.
With bidders from all over the globe including Singapore, Bangkok, Frankfurt and Vienna, the event was live broadcast across Asia and Italy alongside an eight-hands dinner by Executive Chef, Romeo Morelli, Angelo Aglianò of Tosca di Angelo at The Ritz-Carlton, as well as Robin Zavou and Matthew Reuther of The Mandarin Oriental.
Now that the truffle shavings have settled, we sat down with Castellana’s very own Chef Romeo to find out his unique way of serving white truffle, how best to appreciate it, and when he experienced the intoxicating aroma of white truffles for the very first time.
Finding truffles is… a very hard job. It’s an ingredient that doesn’t grow like carrots, and takes the right combination of elements such as temperature, humidity and soil. Even the weather has to be the right condition – you can’t go searching for truffles if it’s raining, for instance.
Truffles are expensive and rare because… they’re only available during a certain period and they’re difficult to find. Dogs are trained find the truffles – starting from the time they are puppies – so it takes a lot of time and sacrifice for both the person and the animal involved.
Pigs aren’t actually used to find truffles anymore… but they are actually the best at it because it’s the wild boar’s natural food. But, when they do find truffles, they tend to destroy everything around them too, including the roots. In order to preserve the truffles for the next season, it’s now not advised to hunt with pigs.
Hong Kongers love truffle because… it’s something that doesn’t grow here (at least not the white one) and it’s just a very unique, limited, luxurious and premium ingredient that everybody likes.
The best way to serve white truffle is… with a long pasta that helps to pick up the truffle shavings. You then need a good fat (aka. butter) that melts into the truffle and brings out its flavour. We also need a little bit of umami, which we use chicken, guinea fowl, veal or mushroom broth for.
When you eat white truffle… you want to feel it. I’d always suggest to keep it simple, but that doesn’t mean not being original or trying new things. At Castellana, we served white truffle with corn and crab two years ago and it was a very successful dish. We were also pairing it with seaweed and other cheeses. So, keeping it simple doesnt mean being boring or basic.
My first taste of truffle was… when I was around six years old. My father was a truffle hunter and gave me a small piece of it. At first, I thought it was a rotten potato and couldn’t taste it at all, but after my father taught me how to clean and shave the truffle, I could finally taste its flavour.
Truffle is… 90 percent smell. You have to eat it in a certain way to help you enjoy the flavour. In order to appreciate it, you have to have a good nose. And when you eat it, you have inhale it and let the air pass through your nose.
Piedmontese cuisine is usually heavy because… the temperature right now in the Piedmont region is zero to minus four degrees, so basically, we need more calories. However, here in Hong Kong, I’ve been adapting all the recipes (including all the white truffle dishes) from my grandmother to 2024 and the context of where we are.
Castellana Hong Kong is now serving an exclusive Alba White Truffle Menu and Immersion in Piedmont Menu alongside their A La Carte Menu with wine pairing options. To learn more, visit castellanahk.com
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