Truffles are a noble gastronomic ingredient and will be the theme of a festival in the Uva restaurant, at The Vine.
Some call them diamonds, others compare them to gold. Others, still, try to figure out what gives them their distinctive flavour. Truffles are but stars in the constellation of the world’s best products.
Their flavour is incomparable. Some say it is something between garlicky and ‘sulphureous’ but the truth is they give away an intense flavour that lasts in your mouth and cannot be masked in gastronomy.
While science tries to explain the mystery of why truffles are so, of what molecules make such an aroma and characteristic flavour possible, it is alchemy that undertakes the task of gastronomic creation in the kitchen.
In the spirit of paying tribute to this product, the The Vine Hotel’s Uva Restaurant & Wine Bar is promoting the truffle festival for the 4th and 5th of March. The event will bring together the passion of Executive Chef Thomas Faudry and truffle dealer Antoine Khoury.
Actually, in the Middle Ages, truffles were faced with suspicion and associated with witchcraft. It was only at the beginning of the Renaissance that the Tuber kind of edible fungus started gain its status of a luxury product lasting to our days. Catarina de Médici was responsible for bringing it into Henry II’s French court, the adequate environment for it to become a fad, almost an obsession, among the classes with more buying power.
There are many type of truffles. The white ones can be found by the beaches of Adriatic Sea, in the French region of Drôme and in the Italian city Alba, from where the most famous ones come. These can go for several thousands of euros a kilo in the fairs held between October and November.
The more common ones ate the black truffles found in France, Spain and Italy. The county of Périgord is the region where they abound more and their value is more accessible than that of their white counterparts, seeing to how they can be grown as happens in many countries of the world.
Antoine Khoury will be in charge of selecting the truffles for the The Vine’s festival. He is the owner of “L’Arbre a Truffle”, a firm conceived with the intent of supplying high quality truffles both to connoisseurs and restaurants.
His shop is in Vence, a city to the South of France and is managed by Antoine and his wife Virgínia, who are both culinary enthusiasts with proven work in the French Riviera.
The Festival will open on the 4th of March and will have an invited chef for dinner. The following day will see a kitchen party in which all participants will have the chance to see the cooking of their dinner in the kitchen, a dinner in which truffles are expected to shine in every course, including desserts.
Dinner will cost 60 euros with an additional drinks supplement for 25 euros. Before dinner services, there will be a cocktail starting at 7 p.m.
