Hello Monaco magazine Winter 2018 - issue HM02 | Page 75

fine dining An accident of nature – A blessing for the culinary world To call it a mushroom is blasphemy – it is at the apex of fine cuisine, «the diamond of the kitchen» according to French gourmet Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin. Imagine! – the rarest of culinary gems, with a divine aroma that cannot be cultivated, that gets sparser by the year. It is the white truffle, «the King of Haute Cuisine», found hiding impishly within the living roots of chestnut, oak, hazel, and beech trees. Praised by the ancient Pharoahs of Egypt and by the Greeks, legends and myths about truffles abound, including the good fortune of a farmer who spotted his prize piglet snorting delightedly at the root of an oak tree, munching «tubers» mingling in its roots. Noticing that his prized piglet grew healthy and fat, the farmer tried the mushroom-like delicacy himself. And year after year thereafter, the wife of this childless couple bore beautiful children – thirteen in all! And the reputation of the therapeutic properties of truffles as God’s gift to humanity spread far and wide. Называть его грибом — богохульство, ведь это верх изысканной кухни, «гастрономический бриллиант», по словам французского гурмана Жана Антельма Брийя-Саварена. Только представьте себе: самый редкий из кулинарных трофеев, обладающий божественным ароматом, не поддающийся культивированию и становящийся все более редким год от года... Это БЕЛЫЙ ТРЮФЕЛЬ, «Король Высокой Кухни», который успешно скрывается в живых корнях каштана, дуба, орешника и бука. ENG The culinary equivalent of Chanel #5 I t is difficult to find a chef who is not in love with this divine