A $112,000 White Truffle?! At Auction, Philly Embraces Fungi Mania
"Bowtie-bedecked auctioneer Samuel Freeman was faced with the unusual task of
convincing a crowd to buy something he admits he knows nothing about: the Tartufo Bianco d'Alba, or Alba White Truffle."
"'I've never auctioned food before,' Freeman says, 'and I'd never even eaten a truffle until two days ago.' Apparently that first taste won him over. 'It was unbelievable.'"
"At $458 per ounce once the bidding got underway, those truffles better knock your socks off."
"'I think that Americans are fascinated by truffles,' says Mauro Carbone, general manager of Italian tourism company Tu Langhe Roero. Carbone tutored Freeman in the finer points of the rare and earthy fungi."