I just happen to have looked at the truffle prices in Austin, Texas, USA yesterday. It was $1200/pound. We have, essentially, no truffles in the US. It is clear that the truffle farmers of France do not have enough to be exporting to the US (or else there is some other obstacle). If a US farmer finally manages to produce significant quantities (and we have heard news of this kind of breakthrough before that never really delivered), it will be filling currently unmet demand.
We do have them throughout the US in elite restaurants. Shipped in, I assume. If you go to The French Laundry, there is a special guy who comes to your table with a gorgeous long hardwood box. He opens it with a flourish, and set into several indentations in the box are baseball-sized truffles. You get to select one, and then he gets out a microplane and starts shaving huge truffle slices onto your plate. He does this until you can no longer see the dish in question (usually it's The French Laundry's legendary truffle mac and cheese). Then he keeps doing it until you think your eyes might pop out of your head and there is a thick fragrant layer of truffle slices all over your dish.
This costs a lot of extra money on top of an already expensive bill. It's worth it.
Granted not at French Laundry but I’ve done this at a fancy NYC restaurant. I’ve also had less desirable truffles (summer truffles) at a far less fancy restaurant in Italy. The Italian ones were much better.
The decay function on truffles is insane. Maybe the very top restaurants can get them from ground to plate in 48 hours but it’s pretty clear that the meal I had used truffles older than that.
I’m excited about the possibility of US truffles because I think a very tight supply chain is more likely.
It sounds like you've studied this market, so I'm curious if you have thoughts on Oregon, as it has been my understanding that there are meaningful quantities harvested there. Is it a matter of variety, lack of commercial production, or am I just misinformed?
From what I’ve read, the Oregon truffles harvested are different varieties noticeably different from the top ones, and even more perishable and time-limited. I don’t think many people eat Oregon truffles outside of Oregon.
Well what I meant is, far less than we would be eating if we could get them. A price like I saw in the grocery store is not at all reflective of cost, even with a profit, it's the kind of price you get when there is a finite supply that cannot (yet at least) grow any, so the price goes up until enough people say "never mind".
For all I know, that truffle I saw was from Oregon. But regardless, there aren't very many. It was priced at about 4x the price of silver, per unit weight.
