Truffle: how a luxury item became ubiquitous

Level 3 l Advanced
1 Warmer
a. Name your favourite …

• pizza toppings
• sandwich fillings
• crisp flavours
• types of popcorn.

b. Compare your answers.

c. Would you like to eat pizza, sandwiches, crisps or popcorn with truffle?

2 Key words
Match the key words with the definitions. Then find them in the article to read them in context.

cultivate bounteous ubiquitous decadence infused

joint legitimize sub provenance
bolster mimic plummet swanky transparency

1. present everywhere ________________________

2. with the flavour of ________________________
3. a restaurant, especially one that is cheap and basic ________________________
4. a type of sandwich consisting of a length of bread or roll split lengthwise and filled with a variety of meats,
cheeses and vegetables ________________________
5. so much pleasure that it almost seems morally wrong ________________________
6. fall greatly and suddenly ________________________
7. very generous and large ________________________
8. increase something or make it stronger ________________________
9. make something legal ________________________
10. copy ________________________
11. collect plants, animals or other things that can be eaten or used ________________________
12. an honest way of doing things that allows other people to know exactly what you are doing
________________________
13. the place where something first came from ________________________
14. fashionable and expensive ________________________
D •
TE DE E
SI A L
EB LO B
W N IA

© Springer Nature Limited 2019. Macmillan Education is part of the Springer Nature Group.
M W P
O DO O
FR BE C
N T
O

NEWS LESSONS / Truffle: how a luxury item became ubiquitous / Advanced

CA O
H
•P
Truffle: how a luxury item became ubiquitous
Level 3 l Advanced
Truffle chips, truffle pizza, truffle
popcorn … how a luxury item
became ubiquitous
The ‘food of the gods’ is now within everyone’s
reach. But is there less to the new snacks than
meets the eye?
Clare Finney
23 May, 2019
1 It is the smell that hits you first: a mix of
petroleum, garlic, fungi and warm earth after
rainfall, followed by peppery olive oil. Next comes
that distinctively deep, savoury flavour. This
is what luxury tastes like; this and a glass of
dazzling bubbles that taste like champagne but
is really a £9 crémant from Sainsbury’s. Because
I am not fine dining. I am not even dining. I am
on the sofa, in my pyjamas, watching the Netflix
series Chef’s Table and eating a snack that
would see most Italian chefs tear out their hair in
disgust: truffle popcorn.
2 Handmade in London by “gourmet popcorn”
brand Joe & Sephs, this is the latest in a growing
number of “lowbrow” foods to use an ingredient
that has more usually been confined to haute
cuisine. Ten years ago, the flavour of truffle was
an imagined treat: I had smelled it, at the truffle
stall Tartufaia in London’s Borough Market, but
never had the pleasure of eating it. In the past
fortnight alone, I’ve had truffle-infused pizza,
mashed potato, popcorn and macaroni cheese.
3 We are obsessed or at least those of us who
like truffles are. “The people who love it really,
really love it,” says Jess Seaton, the co-founder
of Crate brewery in Hackney Wick, east London,
“but it is an acquired taste.” Her sage, potato
and truffle pizza is something “people travel
for miles and miles to eat”. Spanish-produce
importers Brindisa recently bought extra
storage space to cope with demand for its Torres
truffle crisps. Street-food joint Sub-Cult, which
made its name with its braised portobello
mushroom-stuffed sub with truffle mayo, opened
its first bricks-and-mortar outlet in June, 2019, in
the City of London.
4 Outside the capital, you can find truffle macaroni
cheese at Holy Moly Macaroni in Birmingham,
truffle fries and truffle mashed potatoes at
Neighbourhood in Liverpool, a black truffle
base pizza at Purezza in Brighton and
© Springer Nature Limited 2019. Macmillan Education is part of the Springer Nature Group.
NEWS LESSONS / Truffle: how a luxury item became ubiquitous / Advanced
truffle-and-parmesan chips in Browns Brasserie
& Bar outlets around the country. Waitrose
supermarket has seen sales of truffle products
rise so much, it recently planted its own black-
truffle orchard. In Waitrose now, you’ll find a brie
with mushroom and truffle, and a truffle-infused
pecorino cheese, as well as Joe and Seph’s
popcorn and truffle crisps from Tyrrells.
5 For millennia, the truffle, particularly the white
winter truffle, has symbolized decadence. “The
ancient Greeks, whose truffle recipes are the
earliest we’ve found, called it the food of the
gods,” says Mario Prati, owner of Tartufaia.
6 So how come the makers of crisps and popcorn
can now afford to offer truffle-flavoured snacks?
It is not as though the price of truffles has
plummeted. It’s true that the cost of white winter
truffles went down in autumn, 2018, thanks to an
unusually bounteous harvest, but 2018’s prices of
£1,783 to £2,229 a kilo are hardly snack-friendly,
and even their “cheaper” cousins, black truffles,
cost around £750. Truffle farms – where hazel
and oak trees are injected with the black truffle
fungus – have definitely bolstered supplies, but
they are hardly reliable, says Prati. “It takes ten
years to get the first crop, so you won’t know until
then whether they have successfully established.”
7 Instead, he says, it is truffle oil that’s been the
enabling force behind the democratization of
truffles, together with its key ingredient: synthetic
flavouring. The use of truffle oil by chefs and
producers is no great secret. It is there on menus
and the backs of packets. What is surprising
is that truffle oil’s flavour is the result not of the
small bits of truffle you can see inside, but of
the added flavouring. Although truffle’s natural
aroma clings to animal fats, it does not stick to
plant-based olive or rapeseed oils. The piece of
black truffle you find in a bottle of truffle oil is for
decorative purposes and to legitimize the use of
“truffle” on the label. The flavour and distinctive
scent come from laboratory-manufactured
essences, created to mimic the stronger white
winter truffle, which grows in Italy alone and
cannot be cultivated elsewhere.
8 “There is nothing wrong with it,” Prati says, “but
it’s a matter of transparency. People assume that
the black truffle slice is giving it the flavour, but
black truffle doesn’t smell or taste like that.” Prati
doesn’t object to using truffle oil – he makes and
sells it himself – he just wishes there was more
D •
TE DE E
SI A L
EB LO B
W N IA
M W P
O DO O
FR BE C
N T
O
CA O
H
•P
Truffle: how a luxury item became ubiquitous
Level 3 l Advanced
honesty in its use and production. “We’re more
concerned about provenance these days,” says
food futurologist Morgaine Gaye. “We want to
know what we’re eating is natural, and the idea
of truffles represents that.” Even if truffle oil is the
result of artificial processes, “the flavour is earthy
and natural. It feels real.”
9 But the truffle craze is not driven by the affordable
oil prices alone. “Truffle has that umami, savoury
profile you see in miso and tahini,” Gaye says.
“It’s part of this shift away from sweetness
towards more exotic, savoury flavours – and it’s
part of the rising interest in the health benefits
of fungi.”
10 “Historically, umami fans would turn to other
ingredients like anchovy or parmesan to get their
savoury kick,” agrees Shokofeh Hejazi, senior
trend analyst at The Food People, a global food
trends and ideas agency. “The development
of products flavoured with truffle flavours and
aromas means that this umami flavour is
more accessible.”
11 Then there is the explosion of the “affordable
luxury” market. “When we launched Joe & Seph’s
in 2010, it was the height of the recession,” says
3 Comprehension check
Answer the questions in as much detail as possible.
1. Why did the truffle signify decadence in the past?
2. Why are truffle food items so popular at the moment?
3. How are food producers now able to flavour everyday snacks with truffles and still keep their costs down?
4. Why is there often a piece of truffle in truffle-infused oil?
5. What has one British supermarket chain done to keep up with demand?
6. Why are truffle farms economically unreliable?
© Springer Nature Limited 2019. Macmillan Education is part of the Springer Nature Group.
NEWS LESSONS / Truffle: how a luxury item became ubiquitous / Advanced
Joe Sopher, the company’s co-founder, “and
what struck us immediately was that people
were buying our popcorn to go with Netflix, as
something gourmet but affordable. Our popcorn
is handmade by pastry chefs using quality
ingredients, and the truffle oil we use does
contain white truffles as well as truffle flavour. But
it is £4 a bag.”
12 Crisp-maker Tyrrells, meanwhile, is
experimenting with what it calls “swanky”
flavours such as posh prawn cocktail, Aberdeen
Angus beef and, of course, black truffle crisps,
featuring dried black-truffle powder and dried
porcini mushrooms.
13 I recently made my way to Brindisa in Borough
Market only to find the designated shelf empty.
“Excuse me,” I asked a member of staff, “do you
have any of Torres’ truffle crisps out the back?”
14 “I’m afraid we’re all out, madam,” came the reply.
“Have you tried their latest addition:
caviar crisps?”
© Guardian News and Media 2019
First published in The Guardian, 23/05/19
D •
TE DE E
SI A L
EB LO B
W N IA
M W P
O DO O
FR BE C
N T
O
CA O
H
•P
 Truffle: how a luxury item became ubiquitous
Level 3 l Advanced
4 Expressions
Find and underline the expressions in the article. Then match them to the explanations.
1. fine dining a. a building
2. haute cuisine b. something you don’t like at first but you slowly become used to
3. lowbrow c. why
4. an acquired taste d. not fine or posh; everyday things
5. made its name e. eating good, well-prepared food, usually in expensive restaurants
6. bricks and mortar f. very good cooking, especially French cooking
7. how come g. became well known

Use the expressions in sentences of your own.

5 Discussion
• Highlight all the food items and combinations in the article.
o Which sound the most / the least tempting to you?

• What other affordable luxury food items have you come across?
o Have you bought or tried any of them? Give further details.

• What food items that were not available in the past do you now regularly buy?
o Approximately when did they first become available or ubiquitous?
o Can you remember when you first tried or bought them?
o Would you consider them to be an acquired taste?

6 Research and presentation

Choose one of the topics. Then research and present it.
1. Find out more about truffles – where they grow naturally, how they are found and harvested in the wild, how
they are cultivated, sold and preserved.
OR
2. Umami is one of the five basic tastes. What are the other four? How do we differentiate between them?
Provide everyday and luxury food examples for each taste.
D •
TE DE E
SI A L
EB LO B
W N IA

© Springer Nature Limited 2019. Macmillan Education is part of the Springer Nature Group.
M W P
O DO O
FR BE C
N T
O

NEWS LESSONS / Truffle: how a luxury item became ubiquitous / Advanced

CA O
H
•P
Truffle: how a luxury item became ubiquitous
Level 3 l Advanced
KEY

2 Key words 4 Expressions

1. ubiquitous 1. e
2. infused 2. f
3. joint 3. d
4. sub 4. b
5. decadence 5. g
6. plummet 6. a
7. bounteous 7. c
8. bolster
9. legitimize
10. mimic
11. cultivate
12. transparency
13. provenance
14. swanky

3 Comprehension check

1. because it was (and still is) expensive and rare

2. The costs are low enough to make them an
affordable luxury. Also people are seeking out new
savoury umami tastes in preference to sweet-
tasting foods. There is currently a lot of interest
too in the health benefits of fungi – the group that
truffles belong to.
3. They use truffle-infused oil in their products rather
than truffles themselves.
4. for decorative purposes, to legitimize the use of
“truffle” on the label and to give the impression that
it’s the piece that flavours the oil
5. Waitrose has planted its own truffle orchard.
6. It takes ten years to get the first crop, so growers
don’t know until then whether the truffles have
successfully established.
D •
TE DE E
SI A L
EB LO B
W N IA

© Springer Nature Limited 2019. Macmillan Education is part of the Springer Nature Group.
M W P
O DO O
FR BE C
N T
O

NEWS LESSONS / Truffle: how a luxury item became ubiquitous / Advanced

CA O
H
•P