The Most Natural Truffle on Earth l Chef Wonderful and Marco Tallarico

What have you got here? One kilo black truffles! You can manufacture diamonds today, but most people don't want those; they want the natural diamond. It took millions of years to make in the Earth. This is only by the hand of God.

What's very interesting, Kevin, is truffles assist in the production of testosterone. No kidding! [Music] Yes! Hey, Marco, how are you? How are you? Wow, two bearing gifts! Oh yeah, this is amazing. Come on in the kitchen. As you can see, I'm making my pumpkin pie right now. But what do you got here? One kilo black truffles, kilo paneton infused with balsamic vinegar. And then we're going to pour some balsamic over top of it. This is the caviar that I'm about to white label.

Wow, you're making your own caviar? A fim from Cheese Boutique sent you your favorite cheese. He says that's your favorite cheese? Yeah, Afraim is the cheese guy. I call him Cheese Whiz, but he's got every kind of cheese on Earth. Right? This is my wife's olive oil. Oh, no kidding! Extra virgin certified organic olive oil from Calabria. Oh amazing! Harvested at night.

This is the only sustainable organic Brunello in the world. Let's not forget our L fine wine we're going to be featuring here too, so we'll get into that also. This is porcini mushroom, champignon mushroom, black truffle, anovi black olives, salt and pepper, and extra virgin olive oil. It's like a kind of like a bruschetta; we call it a crema. Amazing!

This is truffle caviar? Truffle caviar. Yeah, Icha truffle dust. Truffle dust? That's 49 grams of white Tuscan truffle. And where did this truffle come from? Tuscany! Oh my goodness! Hey, Chef Wonderful here with Marco the Truffle Man! Now, why are you so famous with truffles, Marco?

It's just a new passion to be honest with you. I was in the financial sector before, and that's... you were not a chef, not classically trained? No, well, no. I was trained by my mom. I spent a lifetime in the kitchen just like this, watching my mother cook. So that's how I learned. I love Italy; I love all things Italian.

And I felt like every time I went to Italy, I wanted to bring stuff back. I met this wonderful family in Umbria, Jeppe and Vanya, and they said, you know, we have truffles like nothing you've ever seen in North America. So I did a little research; I realized that there was nothing like this in what they produce in North America.

So I thought, okay, there's a gap in the market, and I'm going to come and I'm going to bring on a consistent basis truffles every week. Now, the challenge with truffles is they are very time-sensitive. They don't last forever; it's a matter of weeks, if not days, right?

Yes, the reason why not too many people do bring them in is because they're so perishable; it's such a hard business logistically getting them here from Italy on time. Within a two-day frame with white truffle, you only have five to maybe seven more days before they lose all their moisture and then they become simply a garnish instead of something that's aromatic.

That aromatic and that flavor, that explosion to the nose when you're shaving it, you really want that experience. It's all about the smell; it's all about the invoking of the taste buds. When you smell it, a chef will never tell you that he loves the taste of a truffle. It's really about the way it smells and the feeling that it brings to you when you're about to eat it.

Now, we've got some truffles in here. You've got black and white truffles, a bunch of black, and they're sitting on rice. What's the deal? Why are we doing that? By the way, the aroma is like… yeah, it's stopped the madness! Yeah, it's crazy, it's wild.

So again, the reason why you would cover a truffle with a paper towel or something is because the moisture you want it to come out, and you don’t want the water to sit on the truffle. So you want it to extract some way. The only problem with putting a truffle in paper towel is that you can't eat the paper towel after.

Rice, on the other hand, although it does draw a little bit more moisture than a towel would, after you could eat the mushrooms, letting a single tiny amount of flavor be lost. Later, I'm going to cook the rice. Then you cook the rice, and you make a nice risotto, and you have a truffle risotto even without the truffle.

Now, I've been told never touch a truffle with your hands. Why is that? Because there's a... your hands are dirty; even if your hands are clean, they still carry oils that you'll never be able to get off your hands.

The bacteria that will be on your hands or anything in the oils will then transfer to a fungi really fast. It'll go through the whole fungus, and then next thing you know you have a soft mushy truffle on your hands. So we're going to use the utensil just to have a close look at the black truffle.

This is a black winter truffle; this is actually from Spain. It's called a Tuber mag... it's a Latin name I can't even say, but it's a fungus. But it's a fungus; it's a black truffle. So this season is the winter season, a little bit more expensive than your normal summer and autumn black truffles because they're harder to find in the winter, especially in the north of Italy.

But, or the north of any, you know, where the climate is colder or there's snow, it's harder to find a black winter truffle. So the harder it is to find a truffle, the more expensive it is. Okay, that's why. What would the cost of this be in, let's say, U.S. dollars?

Um, about $250 per gram, and how many grams is that? That's probably about 50 grams. So 50 times $250, let's just call it $100. It's $100 USD. Now we have over here a white truffle. Now the white truffle is a Tuber magnatum.

The main difference is this black truffle, number one, can be cultivated. So you can farm them; scientists could make these in a lab, and they do. So that the whole issue around diamonds— you can manufacture diamonds, but most people don't want those; they want the natural diamond.

It took millions of years to make in the Earth; this is only by the hand of God. You find them by the roots of trees. How? And they're deeper. And how do you find them? Dogs! What about pigs? No, that's a myth. Pigs are not very agile.

So if the ground is flat and a pig's not going to roll over, then a pig can find it. Yes, but a pig is a lot harder to move, so when a pig finds it, he wants to eat it. What's very interesting, Kevin, is truffles assist in the production of testosterone. No kidding!

Yes! So you always pick; you always have a male dog or male pigs finding the truffles, and you got to see their tails when they smell it. So it gets them to try. Yeah, yeah, this is the truffle of desire; that's what it is. That's fantastic!

No, traditionally known as an aphrodisiac. So what I'd like to do is to do a tasting with you, MH, and so what I'd love to do with that tasting is take out some of my O Chardonnay, crisp, exciting, delicious, and let's taste.

Yeah, let's taste a little black truffle, just raw. How about that? Mhm, that'd be nice. And, because I know it could be fun, the other idea I had is we'll try it by itself, and then let's get out of bellini, get some caviar, put some truffle onto the caviar, and is that debaucherous?

No, it's quite indulgent, but I think it would be fun. Why don't we do that? [Music] So the idea here, Marco, is you want to shave a truffle and eat it with a little fat.

Beautiful! The appas is going in. Dive, dive, dive! Wow, isn’t that beautiful? That is a gorgeous piece of cheese! It's a little splash of the O Chardonnay. You know, we should do a watch check here for a minute because I’ve noticed you're wearing a nice piece.

Yeah, how about that? I'm going with a Richard Mill today for New York time, and of course my one-of-a-kind AP Shark Tank, AP red bands on both. That's LA time! What are you featuring there, Marco?

So this is a Starbucks Rolex, better known as a Kermit, but for three years they called it a Starbucks. I didn’t know that! I've always known it as a Kermit. Who knew? Yeah, for three years it was limited. For three years, they called it a Starbucks.

This was a gift from my old partner when I exited my last company; he bought me this as a gift. That's the whole thing about watches; it really defines a moment in your life. That's why you should have an important piece; you will always remember that in exiting your business with your old partner, right?

That's the whole deal; that's what I tell people. But do not borrow money to buy a watch; never do that! You want to hear something funny? I had a Daytona. I had a stainless steel Daytona, white dial.

Oh, it's classic; beautiful one! At the time, I was kind of, you know, short on money, and I met my wife, and I wanted to propose, so I sold my Daytona so I could buy her ring. Oh, that's... whoa! That's crazy too because you can't get that again. That’s your problem.

That’s the problem! So he gives up his steel white face Daytona, the most classic sought-after watch in the world, to buy a ring for his wife. Yeah, I mean, that is a what the... [ __ ] moment! You got it, that's just crazy.

Well, every time I look at that ring and I look at my wife, I remember... Oh wow! I mean, she better still love you for that! She does! Mr. Wonderful here, no one needs a watch, but everybody wants one.

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Well, this is just your standard stainless steel shaver. You want it to be a significant size when you're opening it, right? But you're not... not too thick because, you know, then each wheel... is there the perfect size or diameter or width to a shave of truffle?

Well, the way that you want to do is four shaves per gram so it's easy to measure in a restaurant. So a chef will go to the table and say, "Here, three shaves, $45," that kind of thing.

Yeah, you know, so it's really based on three shaves, $45. You don't do this every day; off the block is significantly less money. We say it's like five times less than the white. So there's another metric; it's a fifth of the price for black versus white, which is the Ed supro, and we know it's very hard to get, and the dogs go crazy.

Yes! What about just don't touch it with your hand? Well, don't touch it with your hands before you buy it, H, because once you buy it, it's yours; once you own it, it's yours.

So first, you know, you want to get rid of some of the non—that is the outer skin of the truffle. Yeah, so that's the sign. Bucks! Oh my goodness, that's 50 bucks right there.

So we're going to try it with black first, right? Try it with black first. So there you go; look at that. This is a big stinky sticky cheese. Are you ready? I'm going to wait for you; let's do it together!

Instead of bread, oh my goodness! Oh my goodness, that is incredible! The flavors, the textures, that's insane! A little bit of wine after, oh that is just amazing. M, good wine too.

Oh yeah, that's TRM. That's all about texture, flavor; the fat works beautifully with it. Full truffle thing, it's just an explosion. Mhm, you need the fat! If you have employees, you need to check out the ERC program.

Chef Wonderful, why Mr. Wonderful? Because it’s cash flow that you don’t have to pay back. Good to know! This guy's so smart and so handsome! Go to wondertrust.com to see if you're eligible.

Now we're going to take it up a notch, and we're going to go to the white. Now the white is five times more expensive than the black; very, very time-sensitive.

Give us our... we got nine days with the white? No, generally you have... because of the fact that they're brought in and then you don't know where they come from, it takes two days to get. Generally, you have five to seven days, but we bring them in so fresh that you have seven to ten days.

So you've got to be really creative with what you're cooking. You're going to be shaving this. It's not as tough; it's a much lighter experience in terms of the shave, right? So, I think for this experience, let me get out some caviar.

Let me get a bellini; let's put it on top of caviar with a bellini and experience that whole thing. So I just happen to have some bellinis. So let's get these frozen bellinis—very high quality.

Take them out, we'll put a couple on the plate. What I'm going to do is just give them a couple of seconds in my microwave, which moistens them; it turns them into pancakes. Pop that open, put them in here. You want to have the utensils.

When you build a kitchen like this, you want to design it so everything's close by. I prepare so much food in here; it's insane! So what you have to know about microwave is you have to have a feel for the microwave.

And now, myth... no! Oh perfect! Mhm, all right! That's... I'm so good at this; it's ridiculous! So, let me just show you. A dab will do you. In the fridge, put it on the bellini. Make it good; it looks very good!

Mhm, right? And make a little pocket there for the caviar to go on. Perfect, there we go! Get it? Yeah, beautiful! All right, now you're going to hit him with the caviar. Look at that! Oh smash caviar, baby! Not going to be shy with the caviar, so I'll just start off by planing it because if you don't...

Wow, that's right there is $100 worth of truffle! It looks like a mushroom; it's a fungus. Oh, look at that! Oh, stop the madness! It's white truffle on top of caviar! Just say no! All right, are we ready? Here we go!

Oh, I mean this is just... I'll let you go first! Oh my goodness! Yeah, look at that! Here we go, me too! Me! [Laughter] [Applause] Too! That's really effing good!

Okay, so now we're going to experiment with the truffle paste. I leased about 18 hectares in Calabria so my wife stayed at home, but not anymore because now the kids are all at school.

Yeah, so how old are your kids? Six, five, and three— a lot of work! A lot of work! So now she's back to work. Back to work in the sense that we white labeled an olive oil from Calabria.

We harvest it at night. The reason why we harvest it at night is because the temperature is lower in the olive. It's better for the acidity. Yeah, also, if you want to consider it extra virgin olive oil, it needs to be pressed within four hours of being.

That's the rule of extra virgin – four hours. You pick it at night, less acid, crushed in the middle of the night because the temperature is lower. It takes less time for the olive to become the right temperature.

Okay, so we crush it at night. I want to introduce you to a varietal that I think... I think you've had Syrah before, but a lot of people don't know this wine.

But it is—if you love Cabernet Sauvignon and you love Pinot, you are going to love this because it's got such a rich profile and such a spicy aftertaste. I call it the runway; a little air in there. Try that!

Wow, nice, beautiful! Nice color too; it's beautiful! That's beautiful! I think it's going to go so well with this pairing.

All right, what are we doing here, Marco? So what we're going to do now is... so you can see it, we're going to put some of the nighttime, beautiful certified organic extra virgin olive oil from Calabria.

And now this is a mix of white, I mean black summer truffle, black olives, anchovy, champignon, and a pinot mushroom. Incredible! Salt and pepper, all the flavors you treat it much like a bruschetta.

Wow, right? Look at that! Go ahead; I'll leave that for you. I got to have a bite of that! That’s how spectacular it is. Oh my goodness! Yeah! [Applause]

That's wow! Wow! What time is it? Wow! M, it's good! Besides that, that with that wine? Really? Oh my goodness! Oh that, okay, that's insane! Isn't that good? That's insane!

Yeah, that's our number one seller. It's got to be the number one seller. That's insane! Yeah, that's really good. Yeah, and, you know, when we sample it at a show or something, we just put it on bread; we don’t even put tomato.

I love the tomato in there because that little acidity on the bottom and then, of course, you've got it blending with that olive. Yeah, it's like a bruschetta!

So let's just summarize what we've learned today. Let's go through this: We've explored white truffles and black truffles and the differences between and the cost difference—five times difference; white five times more expensive than black.

We've learned about the really short fuse of white truffles, as small as five to seven days. Right? We've explored some amazing derivatives you created like this paste, if I want to call it that, with so many flavors. Okay, which was spectacular!

We've tried the truffles with cheese—amazing! We've tried it with caviar on bellini and crème fraîche— incredible! We paired it with fantastic wines, and I think what we've really discussed today is the celebration of life and family with amazing foods, right?

And one more thing about truffles is you can't find a more organic, more biodiverse product. There's no fooling the Earth; it's put there literally, we call it by the hand of God.

So where can I get... if I—whatever my choice is, if I want to get black truffles, I want to get white truffles? Truffle Kings. Co. I sell white and black truffles consistently every week while they're in season.

While they're in season? What are the months? What are the months? So for white truffles, it's September to January, and for black truffles, all season long, all year.

I could be in Dallas, Texas. I can be in Boston; I can be in LA. I’ll get them to you. And the key, what should I know if I'm just starting out, I'm seeing this video for the first time, I'm convinced I want to try truffles, and all the way, Marco, we've tried them today.

What are you telling a novice to do? Just where do I go to start? I would go to a black truffle. A black truffle is the easiest way to access a truffle taste.

I would shave it fresh on a pasta, on a cheese like we did today. And then if you don't need... if a truffle is not your thing, a black truffle is something that you're worried about not being able to keep it for long enough.

The chef's shelf life on a black truffle is everywhere from 10 to 14 days, and they're buying from you. They want to be thinking about their meal preparation for two weeks max. Yes, yes, yes! You want to have it come on time.

Okay, you want to have it come the day, and then the next day, you're cooking it and using it in your meal. And the reason why we have the products and we have the crema and we have the pearls and we have even this product over here is... that's all year long, isn't it?

It's a dust, it's a freeze-dried white truffle dust—real truffle! Real truffle! $3! Get that from you too? Yes! And I can just sprinkle this on any... sprinkle it on anything! Flavor, yes, add it to a fat, and the flavor, maybe that's if you're really, really budget conscious, start here.

Yeah, start there! You can get it from the same place! Yep, and all the other products! So the crema, I would say, is the one that delivers the most.

What’s the website again one more time? Truffle Kings. Truffle Kings! If you're just starting out and you're very budget conscious, you want your first-time experience, try the truffle dust.

This is a great idea! What does this cost? $3 a pocket? All right, that's what I'm talking about! I want entry level, Marco! I want everybody to try everything! Same with watches—same ideas. Start small, go big! You’re starting with the dust, you're going to the black, then you're really on the El Supre, you're going for the white truffle which is expensive, expensive but a great experience in your life!

100%! You have to do it once in your life! Yeah, Marco, I've had a fantastic time with you today! You got to try my... so so beautiful! Thank you very much!

Thank you, my friend! It's, you know, it's the holiday season—happy holidays to everybody! What a great time we've had here! Yeah! Thank you so much!

I and we've learned a lot and it's been an honor. Yeah, been an honor. Look, it's been a wonderful time! It's been wonderful!

That's terrific! The key is you want to eat, you want to learn, and you want to enjoy family and friends! Marco, to you, and here’s to you! Here’s to your family!