Tag Archive for 'truffles'

Giorgio Sacchini, our favorite Tuscan woodsman, comes to visit

After years of nagging, our wonderful Tuscan friends are coming for a brief visit. The Sacchini family, Giorgio, Paola and Denise will be here in Oakland this coming weekend. Giorgio has been the Oliveto truffle hunter and agent for the past 14 years, and also the main reason we’ve been able to get our hands on the very best truffles for our annual truffle dinners. The Sacchinis will be in the Oliveto Cafe…

Truffle Report #5 – What’s that smell?

The truffle dinners are now in full swing and going very nicely, but I wanted to provide a brief wrap-up of this year’s trip to Italy. Monti-in-Chianti, about 10 miles north of Siena, has been the center of my activities since I began traveling to Italy (over ten years ago) to get truffles, and Giorgio Sacchini and his family have been…

Truffle Report #4 with part of the menu revealed

It’s Thursday night here, and all the truffles for Oliveto’s truffle dinners are still in the ground; collection begins tomorrow morning. It’s cold, there’s been a good amount of rain, and the local truffle fairs have ended. Now, the truffles are for us. Truffle Dinners at Oliveto are booking up, so we’ve decided to extend them through Saturday, November 21st. I’ll bring home more truffles than…

Truffle Report #3 with Aldo Vacca’s Vintage Picks

Truffles are just now coming on, I encountered my first exceptional truffles last night, at the back door of Ristorante Antine in Barbaresco–I didn’t have to put my nose to it, it overwhelmed me from across the kitchen. Prices remain very low, we won’t be able to set the price for Oliveto Truffle dinners until we actually acquire them, but they should be…

Truffle Report #2 – Italy 2009

It’s still ten days or so before I move from the “just looking” phase into truffle acquisition, but here’s what we know so far: the truffles this year are very good, but not plentiful. Despite fewer truffles, prices are dramatically lower than they have been in recent years due to less demand and also many truffles coming from…

Truffle Report #1 – Italy 2009

A very healthy rain arrived in Italy about a week before I did, somewhat improving truffle conditions after another very dry year. The last few days have been beautiful, but we seem to be moving into another rainy period which is good timing for truffle hunting, as long as it doesn’t get too wet.
Here is a video of some of Georgio’s new recruits, five-week-old truffle dogs. They are…

Back on the Trail: Truffle Trip to Italy 2009

I’ll be leaving for Italy mid-October and returning on November 16th, I presume, with a load of fine truffles to be served during our annual Truffles Dinners (November 17 – November 20, 2009). From the memory-lane-archives we’ve compiled a reel of Oliveto truffle stories covered by local and national television news networks over the past twelve years…