Black truffles in July — Australia turns the world of high-end food upside down

Florence Fabricant, in her July 11, 2007 "Food Stuff" column in the New York Times Dining In section, wrote about the new new thing from the Southern Hemisphere: Australian black truffles (above).

Her piece follows.

From Down Under, Black Gold

Some 10 years ago, about 13,000 hazelnut trees inoculated with Périgord black truffle spores were planted by the Wine and Truffle Company near Manjimup, south of Perth, in western Australia. In the last couple of years, the plantation has been tripled in size to about 250 acres, with oak trees planted, too.

Dogs that had been trained to detect cocaine and explosives were given a glamorous new career; last year they sniffed out more than 200 pounds of black truffles. This year the harvest has quadrupled, exports have started, and restaurants in the United States, including the French Laundry in Yountville, Calif., and Lever House in New York, are using the truffles.

Because Australia is in the Southern Hemisphere and the seasons are reversed, black truffles in July are something of a surprise.

“You have to rethink your summer menu to use black truffles because you usually associate them with winter,” said Dan Silverman, below, the chef at Lever House. Since worldwide production of fine black truffles has dropped sharply in the last 10 years, Australia’s news is welcome for devotees of Tuber melanosporum.

The truffles, which are intensely aromatic, inky black and sometimes the size of tennis balls, are in season from June to September. Truffle hunts are open to the public ($55 Australian, with wine, from wineandtruffle.com.au). Balducci’s sells the truffles by special order for $1,495 a pound; the smallest order is a quarter pound, at $373.75. Orders may be placed at any Balducci’s store.