The truffle underground : a tale of mystery, mayhem, and manipulation in the shadowy market of the world's most expensive fungus / Ryan Jacobs.
Record details
- ISBN: 0451495691
- ISBN: 9780451495693
- ISBN: 9780451495693 : PAP
- ISBN: 0451495691 : PAP
- ISBN: 9780451495693
- ISBN: 0451495691
- Physical Description: vi, 279 pages : illustrations, map ; 21 cm
- Edition: First edition.
- Publisher: New York : Clarkson Potter/Publishers, [2019]
Content descriptions
Bibliography, etc. Note: | Includes bibliographical references (pages 271-279). |
Formatted Contents Note: | Part I: The field/theft -- Black diamond bandits -- Death in the grove -- Part II: The laboratory/secrecy -- The peasant's golden secret -- A scientific mystery -- Part III: The forest/sabotage -- Disappearance of the dogs -- Poison -- Part IV: The market/deceit -- Middlemen -- Detectives and fraudsters -- The king's ascent -- The king's betrayal -- Part V: The plate/seduction -- Demanded, delivered, prepared -- Shaved. |
Summary, etc.: | Beneath the gloss of star chefs and crystal-laden tables, the truffle supply chain is touched by theft, secrecy, sabotage, and fraud. Farmers patrol their fields with rifles and fear losing trade secrets to spies. Hunters plant poisoned meatballs to eliminate rival truffle-hunting dogs. Naive buyers and even knowledgeable experts are duped by liars and counterfeits. Deeply reported and elegantly written, this page-turning exposé documents the dark, sometimes deadly crimes at each level of the truffle's path from ground to plate, making sense of an industry that traffics in scarcity, seduction, and cash. Through it all, a question lingers: What, other than money, draws people to these dirt-covered knobs? |
Search for related items by subject
Subject: | Truffle industry > France > History > 19th century. Truffle industry > Italy > History > 19th century. Truffle culture. Smuggling. Black market. |
Available copies
- 9 of 9 copies available at Bibliomation. (Show)
- 1 of 1 copy available at Woodbury Public Library.
Holds
- 0 current holds with 9 total copies.
Other Formats and Editions
Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Status | Due Date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Woodbury Public Library | 381.4158 JACOBS (Text) | 34018145920445 | Adult Nonfiction | Available | - |
Electronic resources
Library Journal Review
The Truffle Underground : A Tale of Mystery, Mayhem, and Manipulation in the Shadowy Market of the World's Most Expensive Fungus
Library Journal
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
In this new book, Jacobs, a reporter with The Atlantic and Mother Jones, starts with a tip from a mushroom forager that leads him around the world in search of truffles and their purveyors. He follows truffles from field to forest to market to plate and even stops in a laboratory to understand the unusual characteristics of this fungus. Along the way he meets a variety of interesting characters and experiences the unique culture that surrounds this fungus. Jacobs, in his travels, even encounters the criminality and deception that comes with a rare commodity that is highly sought after. His prose starts carefree, but becomes more sober as he learns how secretive, as well as lucrative, the truffle market has become. In the end, he finds himself coming to terms with the current market, seeing both good and ill continuing to shape the business. VERDICT Jacobs brings the reader on a fascinating journey that will be enjoyed both by foodies and by travel lovers.--Ginny Wolter, Toledo Lucas Cty. P.L.
Publishers Weekly Review
The Truffle Underground : A Tale of Mystery, Mayhem, and Manipulation in the Shadowy Market of the World's Most Expensive Fungus
Publishers Weekly
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Investigative reporter Jacobs, who writes for the Atlantic, digs deeply into the international truffle business in this fascinating work. Truffles are "revered as one of the finest, scarcest, and most valuable ingredients in fine dining," Jacobs writes. Traveling to France and Italy, where the most sought-after varieties grow, he found an under-regulated business of foragers and shady middlemen who sold the prized fungi to restaurants and distributors. Jacobs also uncovered a dangerous world of criminals who poison or steal other hunters' prized truffle sniffing dogs, and a French farmer willing to shoot and kill to protect the truffles that grow on his property. Jacobs interviews truffle experts such as American octogenarian Jim Trappe, a scientist who spent his life studying "mycorrhizae, the types of fungus that form in symbiosis with the roots of trees." The book culminates a case of corporate fraud in 2003 in a California court, against the world's biggest truffle company, Urbani U.S.A., which sold cans of Chinese truffles intentionally mislabeled as black truffles. This deeply researched and eye-opening account of the lengths people will go for wealth, gratification, and a taste of the prized fungus will captivate readers. (June) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
BookList Review
The Truffle Underground : A Tale of Mystery, Mayhem, and Manipulation in the Shadowy Market of the World's Most Expensive Fungus
Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Anyone who's savored the unrivaled sensual pleasure of a fresh truffle can appreciate why this subterranean fungus awakens an irresistible lust for more and more. Worldwide demand for these elusive mushrooms has pushed prices to stratospheric levels, and where such sums are involved, criminal markets follow. Investigative journalist and first-time author Jacobs does a remarkable job reporting from the front lines of the truffle industry, bringing to vivid life French black-truffle farmers, Italian white-truffle foragers, and their marvelously well-trained dogs. Both humans and canines suffer from thieves who sneak into oak groves and mountain lairs not only to pilfer their truffle crops, but also stooping to poison or steal their beloved dogs as well. Although black-truffle cultivation began in the nineteenth century, worldwide demand still far outstrips supply. And then there are the truffle merchants, some dealing in counterfeit or adulterated fungi. Foodies will learn perhaps too much here they might never again be able to simply relish a truffle, naive of its power to unleash mayhem and murder but they'll certainly enjoy doing so.--Mark Knoblauch Copyright 2019 Booklist
Kirkus Review
The Truffle Underground : A Tale of Mystery, Mayhem, and Manipulation in the Shadowy Market of the World's Most Expensive Fungus
Kirkus Reviews
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
A rare fungus inspires rapture, deceit, and stealth.In an entertaining, revealing book debut, Pacific Standard deputy editor Jacobs brings his considerable skills as an investigative reporter to the fiercely competitive business of marketing truffles. Coveted by chefs and wealthy diners, truffles inspire rhapsodic descriptions of their earthy aroma and taste. "There's something about them that is very primal," one chef notes. "They get your attention at a very deep emotional level." Tasting a white truffle, Jacobs reports, proved so intense that he felt transported, "momentarily, into an alternate universe, a place where flavor mattered more than truth and virtue." Of the hundreds of truffle species, only a handful are edible, and of these, only two generate passionate "culinary fervor": the rare, pale white truffle, "the culinary holy grail," and black winter truffles, "the crown jewels," which sell for an astonishing 500 to 1,000 euros per kilo. The truffles' rarity and scarcity are the result of a complicated botanical process: Truffles' spores emit a musk that attracts forest animals, which ingest them and release them as defecation on the forest floor. The spore cluster then needs to find a particular tree root in order to germinate, a process that can take decades; when it burrows into the root's outer cells, a symbiotic relationship between tree and fungus begins, and through several seasons, if temperature and moisture are optimal, the truffle produces its edible fruit. Truffle hunters rely on specially trained dogs to sniff out their buried quarry, dogs that are vulnerable to stealing or poisoning by competitors. Truffles can be farmed as well as hunted, but competition is just as furious and "suspicion and paranoia" just as pervasive. France and Italy produce the most coveted truffles; some experts look for "the specific aroma that the Italian terroir imparts," but other traders are not so particular, knowing that they can sell inferior truffles from Morocco, Tunisia, China, and Romania, passing them off as higher quality to buyers who desire "the appearance of wealth."A deftly crafted tale of obsessions and true crime in the culinary world. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.