This 3.3 pound truffle sold for $373,000 at a charity auction this weekend. Macau casino owner Stanley Ho outbid artist Damien Hirst and Sheikh Mansoor Bin Zayed al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi for the white truffle, apparently the largest of its kind found since 1954. A truffle hunter digging near Pisa, Italy dug out the fungus from more than 2.5 feet underground. From Reuters:
“I can say it’s very odd. Normally truffles are more round. This looks like the brain of a man … but it’s nice, very nice,” said Alfonso Iaccarrino, Italian chef at the Lisboa Hotel, who posed with the mushroom and prepared a four-course meal featuring white truffle dishes at the gala auction event.
Previously on BB:
• Truffle hunting Link