Family Works: Lake Charles Poultry and Specialty Meats
May 2025
Food Allergies: Don’t Let Them Interrupt Your Child’s Summer
May 2025
by Kerri Cooke
If you’ve never experienced the taste of truffle, it’s time to indulge in one of the most trending ingredients in the culinary world.
The truffle hype is due to the taste of the fungi, its scarcity and its status as a luxury food.
Truffles grow underground, close to the roots of oak, beech and hazel trees. They are not easy to grow, so harvesters mainly forage for them in the wild. Truffles require very specific growing conditions, thriving in well-drained alkaline soil in regions where summers are hot, but autumns and winters are mild. Truffle rich areas include France, Italy, Spain and Australia.
The spores of the truffle are distributed by foraging animals. Once deposited near a host tree, the truffle spores can grow by leveraging the tree’s ability to photosynthesize. The truffle returns the favor by providing nutrients and water to the host tree. Since truffles grow under the soil, specially trained dogs are used to sniff them out.
As one of the most expensive culinary delicacies, a wild truffle fetches an extremely high price and is usually utilized in cuisine within a few hours of its harvest. The taste of a truffle is described as “earthy,” but that description hardly does its unique flavor justice. Here are a few local eateries with truffle dishes on the menu:
La Truffe Sauvage, which means ‘the wild truffle,’ uses the fungi in some of their dishes as you would expect from a restaurant serving upscale French cuisine. While menu items vary depending on seasonal availability, truffle usually finds its way on the menu. It’s in the name, after all. Currently, their Traditional Steak Tartare comes with Parmigiana Reggiano truffled potato chips.
Truffle pairs extraordinarily well with all forms of fried potatoes. Coffee:30 offers Parmesan Truffle Fries, a must-try if you’re a French fry connoisseur, while Helen St. Bakehouse, known for their freshly baked breads and pastries, sells Truffle Tots, perfectly fried and garnished with chives.
Wild Mushroom Truffle Focaccia Bread is 121 Artisan Bistro’s take on truffle. Focaccia bread is an Italian bread, similar to a flatbread but not as thin, which is made using a high gluten flour, oil and yeast. This type of bread is usually eaten topped with various ingredients. 121’s dish is topped with oyster and cremini mushrooms, smoked mozzarella, truffle oil and fresh basil.
Restaurant Calla offers their Mushroom and Truffle Pasta as a stand-out dish. Complete with truffle shavings, the pappardelle pasta is enhanced with cremini and oyster mushrooms, blistered tomatoes, lemon, garlic, bacon, chicken stock and Dubliner cheese.
For days when only sushi will satisfy your palate, Umami Japanese Restaurant serves a Truffle Suzuki Roll. The roll consists of snow crab, avocado and crunch and is topped with Yellowtail, sea bass and a truffle vinaigrette.
If wanting to experience the magic of truffle in your own kitchen, Crave Gourmet Baskets & Gifts sells a black truffle oil, white truffle oil and a black truffle butter, the last of which is a specialty product from new vendor Buttery Spell.
