I’m not sure how I found out about this event, but since we enjoy truffles quite a bit, it seemed quite interesting. It’s actually a weekend of events, but the only one I signed us up for was the Dig Truffles? Foodie Experience & Truffle Lunch at Joseph Phelps. The main things that attracted me to this was that there was truffle hunting and a visit to Joseph Phelps for a truffle lunch. We’d been truffle hunting when we were in Provence at Les Pastras so we’ve done that before, but having that here in Napa was not something I knew of. As it would turn out, the truffle hunting was the least interesting part of the event.
We started with a check-in at the Westin Versa hotel in the morning where they also had some local truffles for sale. They were quite pricey, so we passed on them, esp. since we had a large order in coming in a couple weeks for Les Pastras. At 9am, the doors opened to the conference room where tables were lined up to view the screen up front.
We really had no idea what was on the agenda for this part of the event. It started with a series of discussions and lectures. The first was a panel of the 5 chefs who were particiapating in the event (there was a dinner the evening before). The emcee for the discussion was Liam Mayclem who is “The Foodie Chap” on CBS and the chefs included Ken Frank of La Toque (which is the restaurant in the Versa. We had eaten here quite awhile ago when they still had their Michelin Star), Darin Cambell of The Glasshouse in Scotland, Michael Smith of Farina in Kansas City, Tod Kwachi of Joseph Phels, and Dustin Valette of Valette, The Matheson & Roof 106 in Healdsburg (we’d eaten at Valette almost a year ago). There was discussion about their experiences with truffles including when they were first introduced to them, etc. It was interesting to hear about their histories and experiences.
The second session was a discussion from Ken Frank about truffles in general. He went through the main truffle types and their qualities and their growing seasons. There was of course the primary ones, Périgord, Burgundy, and Italian White. He also went through a list of various other less desirable truffles that we largely knew nothing about. It was all very interesting and educational for us.
The third session was hosted by Prof. Paul Thomas who gave a very interesting scientific perspective on truffles on what they are how they grow, how they communicate, and how they propogate. We’d never really heard a discussion from this perspective and we learned quite a lot.
The last session was given by Lynell Heatley, co-owner of The Truffle Hunters, who train dogs and host truffle hunting events. This was also informative. Lynell spoke a bit about the history and transition from pigs to dogs. She also spoke about the physiology of dogs and what makes them so very well suited to hunting truffles. She also spoke about the training of the dogs. All in all, it was also interesting to hear about this aspect of truffles.
Then we had the most fun part of this session, the Experiential Exercise. For this, we would be presented 8 labeled wine glasses each with either one of six winter truffles, or truffle oil, or truffle salt. We were told to smell each one and take notes on the aromas, etc. Some of this had very prominent and unpleasant smells – the Pecan truffle smelled like acetone to me, the bagnoli smelled like petrol or rubber, the smooth black truffle smelled a bit like garlic, and the brumale I didn’t quite know how to describe it, but I wrote down “toasted” although I new that that wasn’t quite right. The Burgundy truffle was just mild and by itself I thought I would have difficulty identifying it.
Then we were given a blind smelling of 8 numbered glasses with one of each of the items covered in cheesecloth. We had to guess which truffle/oil/salt was in which numbered glass. The pecan and bagnoli were very clearly obvious to their very strong distinctive aromas. The salt and the oil were obvious. The Périgord was fortunately obvious also since we’ve had so many of these over the years. I had to go back and forth a few of them, but I ultimately picked up the garlicky notes on the smooth black truffle and the “toasted” note (again, I don’t really know what to call it, but it was distinctive enough) of the brumale. By process of elimination, this left the Burgundy truffle which I didn’t have to explicitly identify (although on my notes, I did pick that correctly also on the first pass, but with a question mark since I couldn’t be positive. In any case, this was a very fun challenge. This was great fun and Andrea and I came up with our lists independently and we were pleasantly surprised to see that we had both come up with the same list. The mother and daughter seated to my right also came up with the same list. We then passed our sheets to two people to the right and then they gave is the correct answers and we scored them. Andrea and I both got all 8 correct as did the mother and daughter beside us and in total. There were about 8 of us in a room of maybe 50 who got all the answers correct and so all of us were now eligible for the drawing for two truffle prizes. They drew from the sheets of those of us who scored 8 and Andrea won the first drawing! It was a 20g Périgord truffle from France. Nice!
After all of that fun and excitement, the entire group drove themselves up to Joseph Phelps Winery where we would have the truffle hunting demonstration and lunch. We met up in a small grove of oak trees on your way up to the winery. The truffle hunting was just a canned demo with pre-buried capsules with truffles in them (and the locations were marked with flags). So it was not that impressive of a demonstration, but the dogs sure are cute.
We then headed into the winery where we were greeted with some of their Ovation sparkling wine. We stood on this deck/patio area and admired the beautiful day and the view. There were some beef tongue and truffle canapés, created by Chef Ken Frank, that were being served. The CEO gave some opening words and we were ushered into the main room where the tables were set. Tables were assigned and we were seated at the table across from the co-owners of The Truffle Hunters, Ryan the winemaker, and the wives of one of the chefs and a couple other couples. It was a shame that it was so loud that we could only just talk to the couples on either side of us although later in the meal and the end, I did get a chance to ask Ryan a couple questions.
The meal consisted of 4 courses with one course being created by each of the other chefs. For the first course, it was Home Smoked Lobster over Single Malt Barrels from Chef Darin Campbell. This was a small half lobster with the lobster pieces cut and returned to the shell with a truffle butter sauce and chives all topped with fresh truffle. The truffles were of course quite fresh and fragrant. This was a well constructed dish with lobster, butter, and truffle that all complemented each other. This was paired with the a Sonoma Coast Chardonnay from the Pastrale Vineyard.
Next came the Guinea Hen and Mortadella Tortellini from Chef Michael Smith. Chef Smith came to our table (his wife was seated here) to shave the truffles tableside. When Chef Smith spoke about the dish, he said the tortellini’s were a bit small for tortellini, but he had had made all 3000(!) of them, but he did say they had they had the key aspect of having a shape that could scoop some of the Guinea Hen brodo. It was a good dish, but we still wanted a bit more depth of flavor to the brodo. This was paired with the Quarter Moon Vineyard Pinot Noir from Sonoma Coast which was a decent pairing for a poultry dish.
Third course was the Charred Akaushi Wagyu Duo from Chef Dustin Valette. The NY strip that was so perfectly evenly cooked and we all assumed it was sous vide, but it was poached in brown butter, which basically accomplished the same effect for cooking it to temp. On the side was a torchon with chunks of oxtail and mushroom and black truffle. Ther were some mushrooms sauteéd in Madeira, a bit of truffle jus and of course some shaved truffles. There was also a sprig of bok choy that Chef Valette joked about this basically being a salad. This dish was not surprisingly an unctuous umami rich dish and I loved it. This was paired with the 2018 vintage of their flagship Insignia wine which is a Bordeaux style blend heavy on the Cabernet Sauvignon. The exact blend varies year to year and from which of their many vineyards, but it is always predominantly Cabernet Sauvignon and in this vintage 87%. We loved the wine too and we ended up purchasing a couple bottles.
The final course was the Candy Cap Truffle Crèmeux dessert from Chef Tod Kawachi of Joseph Phelps Vineyard. This dish was made up of layers of feuilleté sandwiching a chestnut creme. On tops was a ribbon of crémaux, some pear. There was also a mini quenelle of a very savory truffled foie gras which was a very pleasantly surprising contrast to the rest of the sweetness of the dish. This was of course topped with a few strategically placed shavings of truffle. This dish was paired with the Delice ice wine made with Scheurebe grapes. It was a relatively light dessert wine.
Overall, this was a fantastic experience from the presentations, of course the Experiential Exercise, and a great very fun lunch and wine pairing. I honestly didn’t know too much about what to expect from the experience beforehand and we were so pleasantly surprised and how enjoyable it all was. Thumbs up!
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