Italian stock markets are sharply down this year, but the price of white truffle has doubled to 3,000 euros ($4,100) per kilogram in just a week.
Truffle hunters say the increase is due to low average rainfall in areas where truffle is found, as well as higher demand — particularly from buyers in Asia where truffle tastes have taken off, Italian news agency ANSA reported.
The price is now at around 3,000 euros for large truffles and some 2,500 euros per kilogramme for smaller tubers — far higher than last year.
Bon Appetit magazine has released a list of the top 10 chefs to follow on Twitter following a story on how Twitter is narrowing the gap between chefs and their diners.
Fans are tweeting to chefs directly, with some soliciting chef secrets for the best marinara sauce, some taking their beefs online for the Twittersphere to see, and others still hoping for a virtual shoutout and a mention on Twitter with their handle.
Chefs, meanwhile, like Chris Cosentino of Incanto in San Francisco, are posting Twitter-only specials for their regulars.
Cathay Pacific is to introduce meals from some of Hong Kong’s top restaurants on board its flights.
Although airlines regularly draft in celebrity chefs to create in-flight menus, recreating cuisine served at ground level is a trickier business not least because of the logistics of preparing food in an aircraft galley and the different way it tastes at 35,000 feet.
But bravely, Cathay Pacific has decided to give it a shot, promising to put a selection of dishes from the restaurant menus of luxury chain Swire Hotels on some of its planes departing Hong Kong between November 1 and January 31 2012.
Luxury Parisian caviar purveyor Kaviari has launched small, portable tins of the delicacy for the traveling gourmand for whom caviar is an everyday, “dainty” snack.
As spotted by trendhunting site Springwise this week, En-K de caviar is a collection of six, 15 g Osetra caviar tins that come in different colors and a small serving spoon.
Osetra is one of the most expensive caviars on the market and comes from the Osetra sturgeon. It’s second only to the Beluga caviar as the most prized.
Chocolate giant Nestlé has created a brand of luxury, bespoke chocolates that cater to consumers’ individual tastes and delivers the customized box within 48 hours.
The new brand will be sold under Maison Cailler and begins with a chocolate tasting where consumers rate their preferred flavors in an online questionnaire.
Within 48 hours, they’ll receive a luxury box-set of chocolate bonbons that have been selected according to their preferences.
“Maison Cailler is a response to the changing times we live in,” said Cédric Lacroix, director of Nestlé’s Chocolate Centre of Excellence in Switzerland.
Japan has overtaken France for the number of restaurants with three Michelin stars, according to the latest guide to the nation’s western cities to be released on Friday.
Japan is now home to 29 establishments that hold the highly coveted three-star rating, against 25 in France.
The latest version of the Michelin guide to Kyoto, Osaka, and Kobe this year adds the former capital Nara and will be available both in Japanese and English.
