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Alba White Truffle Fair Celebrates Its 92nd Year
October 8, 2022 @ 9:00 am - December 4, 2022 @ 8:00 pm CEST
Italian Chef Carlo Zarri discussing with truffle vendor on the truffle quality and price. (Nikao Media)
First Published: October 08, 2016 | Updated: October 30, 2022
Alba White Truffle Fair returns to Piedmont, Italy for the 92nd Year. Savour exquisite truffles, regional delights, and discover Alba’s millenary culture
Every October, the Alba White Truffle Fair attracts gastronomy professionals and connoisseurs, tycoons, and celebrities from around the world to taste, bid and purchase the world’s best white truffles (tartufo bianco).
Alba White Truffle – Diamond of the Kitchen
Italian truffles like caviar are luxurious and prized gourmet delights. Eighteenth century French gastronome Brillat-Savarin called the truffle “the diamond of the kitchen”.
The best truffles are the wild white Piedmontese type (Tuber Magnatum Pico) from Alba in the Italian province of Cuneo. The flesh (or gleba) varies from white to yellowish-grey, and etched with thin white veins. It releases a pungent and powerful aroma liken to a combination of earthy, woody and aged cheese scent.
Join famed Italian Chef Carlo Zarri as speaks to vendors and attendees at the Alba White Truffle Fair.
Wild truffles thrive symbiotically with roots of leafy trees such as oak, poplar, willows; lime and hazelnut bushes. The hardier the tree wood, the stronger the intensity of the truffle’s scent and flavour.
Northern Italy’s damp Lange forests are the best harvesting ground. Only licenced hunters (trifulaos) can harvest the wild truffles. They are usually accompanied by their dogs rather than pigs as they tend to eat the truffles once unearthed.
Depending on the quality and supply, a kilogram of Italian white truffles can be priced as high as USD5,000. The white truffles are available between September to December.
At the fair, visitors can also savour black truffles, the famous Barolo wines,and regional delights such as, cured meats, and the renowned IGP Piedmont hazelnut (Tonda Gentile della Langa). The rich taste, superb quality and longer shelf life of this sweet round and refined of Langhe is what sets it apart from other hazelnut varieties.
Visitors will also have an opportunity to discover Alba’s millenary culture through folklore events, historical re-enactments and entertainment.
For more details on truffle dinners in Canada and USA this fall, go to Taste Truffles.