White truffle lot sells for €18,000 to Paris restaurant Amâlia
A single lot of just over 2 kg went to a one-star Paris kitchen run by two Italian chefs, at close to twice the top prices quoted at Alba in October.
A white truffle lot of just over 2 kg sold for €18,000 at the auction of the 46th Salone Nazionale del Tartufo Bianco Pregiato in Città di Castello, Umbria, on Sunday 1 November. The buyer was Amâlia, a one-Michelin-star restaurant in Paris run by two Italian chefs.
The lot was put together from truffles supplied by several of the companies exhibiting at the fair, and went under the hammer as one unit rather than as a single record specimen. Amâlia, in the 11th arrondissement, is led by chef Eugenio Anfuso with pastry chef Cecilia Spurio; the Michelin Guide lists it with one star.
What the white truffle lot is worth per kilo
At auction, a truffle sells for its weight in attention as much as its weight in grams.
Neither the organisers nor the local press gave a price per kilo, but the arithmetic is simple: €18,000 for a little over 2 kg works out at under €9,000 a kilo. The other sales of the day came in lower. Mauro Di Lieto, the London-based Italian pastry chef who won Bake Off: The Professionals in the UK in 2023, paid €1,900 for a 350 g truffle, roughly €5,400 a kilo.
Andrea Vicario, executive chef of a restaurant in Polignano a Mare, in Puglia, paid €1,000 for a truffle of about 200 g. Daniele Binario, resident chef at Ficheria Santomiele in Prignano Cilento, was also among the professionals at the sale.
Those prices sit well above the open market. In early October, Il Resto del Carlino reported white truffle at Alba selling for €2,000 to €4,500 or €5,000 a kilo for the finest pieces, while restaurateurs buying in Acqualagna, in the Marche, were paying €2,000 to €2,500. An auction adds a premium for selection, size and attention, and the buyers know it.
The fair is run by the Ente fiera Salone nazionale del tartufo bianco pregiato together with the city council. Its president, Lazzaro Bogliari, and Letizia Guerri, the councillor for tourism and trade, said the sale was above all a result for promoting the area, and that through its truffles Città di Castello was building ties with some of the most interesting kitchens in Europe.
Two more weekends, then Grinzane Cavour
The Salone continues in the town's historic centre on 7-8 and 14-15 November, with free entry, selling truffles from the upper Tiber valley that surrounds Città di Castello. Its first weekend has already set the price that the rest of the edition will be measured against.
The next benchmark comes on 8 November, when the World Alba White Truffle Auction returns to Grinzane Cavour. Piedmont's top lots will show whether Umbria's Paris price was a ceiling for the season or only the opening bid.
