Flavours of the finest fungi

No 43 Italian Bistro on Soi Langsuan is known and loved for its authentic, home-made pastas and pizzas but these two classics are being pushed out of the spotlight later this month by a famed fungus from Italy – the black summer truffle.

Chef Sebastien Schneider from Luxembourg, who has just wound up his contract with the Grand Regina Hotel in Grindelwald, Switzerland, is jetting into Bangkok to serve as guest chef for the truffle festival and is introducing a six-course tasting dinner menu that will have gourmets crying out for more.

His sense-stimulating dishes are simple, he says, the better to bring out the distinctive aroma of this high-priced fungi. 

“The summer truffle harvest normally starts in June or July, which is when the fungus is at its peak of ripeness and flavour. The black summer truffle from Italy is not over powerful and has a fairly mild taste that pairs well with a few simple ingredients in uncomplicated presentations. The price is about Bt9,000 per kilogramme,” Schneider explains. 

The dinner starts with beef tartar on toasted baguette. Grain-fed raw beef tenderloin from Australia is finely diced and seasoned with balsamic, mustard, olive oil, pepper and truffle oil and is served on a crusty baguette topped with herbs, micro salad leaves, butterfly pea petals and truffle shavings. The truffle-perfumed tartar and the subtle fresh flavours of different herb toppings make the dish a perfect light starter.

If you prefer not to eat beef, tell the chef and he’ll make sure you get your truffle kick through scrambled egg on the toasted baguette. The scrambled egg is seasoned with truffle juice, chopped black truffle, salt and olive oil and is decorated with different herbs and vegetables and truffle shavings. 

“Just dress it to look natural, not pretentious,” he says.

My favourite dish is next up - porcini mushroom cappuccino with truffle essence. Served in a glass, this thick Italian porcini soup is topped with truffle-flavour espuma and truffle shavings so that it resembles a hot cappuccino. The glass is placed on a plate decorated with a soft yet crunchy choux pastry filled with creamy truffle bechamel on the side. Schneider uses mashed potato as the “glue” to attach the choux pastry to the plate.

“This Italian mushroom has a wooden and earthy taste that pairs perfectly with the light foam-like truffle cream to achieve the right 

 balance between taste and texture,” he says.

Two options are offered for the main dish: scallop and chicken breast. The Hokkaido scallops filled with truffle shavings are pan-seared and put into an oven for 20 seconds and then served on a bed of mashed organic potatoes. The dressing is a brown chicken sauce made of caramelised chicken bones, which highlights the deep note of the truffles.

The roasted organic chicken breast is stuffed with truffle shavings and pan-seared, and served on mashed potato. It’s then garnished with brown chicken sauce and finished with light chicken broth foam. 

Diners then get to cleanse their palates with French brie made with unpasteurised milk and stuffed with truffles. It’s served with a buttery cube of toasted brioche that is soft inside but crunchy outside. On the side is salad leaves rolled like a rose and dipped into balsamic and olive oil dressing. 

The dessert is caramelised red pear filled with caramel sauce, and served on top with a thin orange and chocolate tuile – a thin crisp biscuit. With spiced chocolate sauce on the plate, the sweet treat is topped with vanilla ice cream flavoured with shaven truffle and truffle oil. The soft texture and sweet taste of pear together with spiced chocolate sauce and truffle-flavoured ice cream give a distinctive complexity to this dish.

Dinner ends with an assortment of home-made chocolate truffles, so named for their shape rather than because they contain any fungi. The assortment includes dark chocolate truffles coated with cocoa powder, dark chocolate and praline paste truffle coated with chopped peanuts, white chocolate truffle coated in white chocolate, and white chocolate, coconut and lime truffle coated in grated coconut.

The six-course degustation menu costs Bt1,300 or Bt1,800 paired with wine. You’ll get a glass of red wine with the beef tartar, white with the main dish and cheese and sparkling wine for dessert.

 

 

TANTALISING TRUFFLES

>> The truffle festival runs from June 27 to July 6. The dinner starts at 6.30pm. 

>> No 43 bistro is on the lobby floor of Cape House on Soi Langsuan. Call (02) 658 7444 extension 285 or visit www.CapeHouse.com.