The legendary French gourmet Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin called white truffles "the diamonds of the kitchen". With 1kg of the famously whiffy tuber costing almost £3,000 in the auctions of northern Italy, white truffle is one of the world’s rarest and most expensive ingredients, sniffed out by dogs from under the roots of trees the location of which the truffle hunter will do everything he can to keep secret. The season runs from the end of October until early January and chefs love the fact that white truffle is one of the few wild and genuinely seasonal ingredients left in their repertoire. Here we’ve sniffed out the best restaurants in London for white truffle this autumn.
L’Anima “Hints of garlic and a distinct musky smell” is how L’Anima’s head chef Lello Favuzzi describes the taste of white truffle. “I like using it because it’s rare and in a restaurant like ours, it’s important to have the best ingredients.” Favuzzi sources truffles from Umbria for the City Italian and likes to eat white truffle with fresh pasta, risotto and beef, although gnocchi is his favourite combination. Work your way through L’Anima’s dedicated truffle menu, from mashed potatoes with truffle (£16) to veal chop with truffles (£85) via truffle shaved on battuta di Manzo, burrata, tagliolini and risotto, washed down, Favuzzi suggests with a Dolcetto d’Alba. 1 Snowden Street, London, EC2A 2DQ