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£25 pudding is not to be truffled with
By Valentine Low, Evening Standard 26.10.06
Just dessert: Low samples the truffle ice-cream and poached pear
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Cornetto it ain't. A London restaurant is serving probably the country's most expensive ice-cream - at £25 a scoop.
For lovers of white truffles, who go to great lengths to seek out their favourite delicacy, it is probably also the ultimate luxury.
The ice-cream is the piece de resistance at Luciano in St James's, the restaurant launched a year ago by truffle lover Marco Pierre White with Rocco Forte. Restaurants all over London are taking advantage of the truffle season, which lasts from this month to December, to offer such dishes as truffle risotto.
But it is Luciano - under the inspiration of chef Marco Corsica - that is going the extra mile and offering truffles for pudding as well as starters and main courses. The dish was created for the London-based Russian billionaire Boris Berezovsky, a regular at Luciano and a man whose love of truffles knows no bounds.
Maitre d' George Perendes said: "When he is having truffle risotto and I get to his table it's 'come on, George, keep shaving - don't worry about the price'." That price, incidentally, is £1,700 a kilogram when the truffles come from Piedmont in Italy.
To make the pudding, Mr Corsica first of all stores his eggs with the truffles inside a sealed box to infuse them with the flavour. The eggs are then used to make the ice-cream, which is served on a bed of truffle shavings with some more on top. No one can really complain they are getting short changed on the truffle front.
The ice cream comes with a poached pear in aged balsamic vinegar - an essential ingredient, says Mr Corsica, because without it the truffle would be overpowering.
It is a conclusion with which this critic would have to concur. Without the pear, the pudding is one which - how can one put this? - announces its presence in a somewhat assertive manner. With it, the dish - fragrant, voluptuous and heady - begins to make sense. Served with a glass of Sauternes dessert wine...well, you begin to get Mr Berezovsky's point.
He is not the only member of the super-rich club to have a taste for truffles. Roman Abramovich is also said to be fond of them, as is Madonna. "She comes here quite a lot and loves truffles," said Mr Perendes.
The other day three big spenders came to the restaurant and between them ordered three beef carpaccios with white truffles (£35), one truffle risotto ( £ 40) and one poached pear with truffle ice-cream. At £25 a go, however, the ice-cream is a luxury I can force myself to go without.
YOUR FUNGI IS SERVED...
Locanda Locatelli, W1
White truffle risotto, £50/£60. Scrambled or fried eggs with white truffle, £35.
Luciano, SW1
Aberdeen angus carpaccio with white truffle, £45. White alba truffle risotto, £40.
Assaggi, W2
Uoda tartusaee (baked eggs with cream) with white truffle, £10.90 plus £25 portion of truffle. Angel hair pasta with white truffle, £12.50 plus £25 portion of truffle.
Cipriani, W1
White truffle tagliolini, £15 plus £70 portion of truffle. White truffle risotto, £18 plus £70 portion of truffle.
Mosaico, W1
Uova strapazzate con crostinite tartufo (scrambled eggs with croutons and white truffles), £50. Tagliolini fatti in casa al tartufo (Home made tagliolini pasta with white truffles), £50.
Franco's, SW1
Risotto with white truffle, £10 plus £6 per gram of truffle. Any type of pasta with white truffle, £10 plus £6 per gram.
The Ivy, WC2
Prosecco risotto with white alba truffles, £45.
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