Jason Staudt on Truffles

Conversation with a chef: Hi Jason. How are you? Nice to see you.

Jason Staudt: Welcome back.

Thanks again for your time. I'm on this truffle pathway.

I like that. So you want to do a big piece about truffles.

Yes, I do want to do a big piece about truffles. I saw a post on Instagram about not being able to wait for truffle season. I'm a French teacher and I like thinking that I know about France and French things, but I don't really know much about truffles. I had a chat to a cultivator in WA.

Manjimup. Really good truffles there.

He said that they are equivalent of the Perigord truffle.

Well that's what it is. It's the same species. Tuber magnatum or whatever the scientific word is, but it's the same one from Europe. I guess there's hundreds of varieties of truffles.

Apparently there are. I spoke to an Italian chef earlier today and he was a bit dubious about the truffles from Australia because of the soil. But it sounds as though in different areas there are those equivalent conditions.

I definitely think so. Even in North America you'll see summer truffles from Australia, you know what I mean? That's like a pretty common thing. Particularly WA, I think WA was the one of the oldest places growing truffles.

He mentioned that they export to Europe the off season over there.

That's what I mean. Summer truffle.

I had no idea, because to me truffles are a winter warmer. I imagine truffles with heartier things and risottos, I suppose risotto could be a summer risotto. And then a chef this morning mentioned truffles with scallops. But Jordan at Pipis said he couldnt imagine truffles with seafood.

Sorry, I agree with Jordan. You can do it, maybe white truffle when it's super fragrant.But for me, the most important bit is having dairy, lactose to pull out the flavour. If you don't have the lactose, you don't actually release a lot of the oils that are in the truffle. So you don't get that aroma as much as you would if you were just using olive oil. You need the dairy to actually pull the flavour out. A lot of growers talk about that as well with their truffles. I guess the way we purchase truffles, we don't waste truffles at all. We usually have a mix of brandy and Madeira jar just going all the time. Any trim we get, we just chuck it in there for the whole truffle season and we'll have a pretty big jar of just trim. Then at the end of the year we usually have a special where we do a truffle sauce because there's so much strong truffle flavour in that. You get so much out of truffles, I reckon. If you use it smartly. There are so many ways you can use it.

I'm limited in my way of thinking about it. Annie Smithers mentioned slicing them really thinly and putting them under the skin of poultry and then using the ends in a butter or an oil or something. But you've got some different ways of doing things.

I think all of those things I think are really good. But the key for me is lactose. We use the trim inside the cheese. Every year we do a couple rolls of cheese at the beginning of the truffle season, or usually third or four fourth week into truffle season because the first couple of weeks are never really amazing, I'll be honest. Its usually that third week when you open the bag and you're like, there it is. There's that smell. I'm looking for that strong aroma.

I was going to ask you what are you looking for in a good truffle. Is it the aroma?

Yeah, aroma would be the number one. And then a big one for me, there's all different classes. You have premium first class and then you go all the way down to trim. And then there's price range from top to bottom. The top one is really all about how it looks. It's usually the perfect size of a 50 cent coin all the way around. Perfectly round like a golf ball. That's the premium first class. And then the little filaments. Those little filaments. Sometimes they're really hard and when you use them shaving they catch and that tends to not be a premium first class truffle. Its the truffle down and they're really, really hard. I actually think it sits in the ground just a day too long that the dogs don't find it. I'm always looking for that kind of smaller filament, so they slice better and they get more yield as well.

Have you been truffle hunting?

Definitely. In Canberra. Truffle Hill is the farm I went to. He was an interesting story. The guy that started the farm raised dogs to sniff out bombs. And then he ended up starting a truffle farm. I think he worked at Truffle Hill or one of the big Manjimup truffles. They started using his dogs for the truffles because they could be trained for the same thing. Then he started his own truffle farm.

I hadn't quite realized all the cultivating that goes into it, it takes years to set up a truffle farm.

It's crazy. It's wild. It's such an investment. It's such a time investment. The trees that you have to plant in rows, you have to alternate the trees. Depending on your belief in how it works, where you plant the spores, when you plant the spores. It's crazy.

So when does it all start for you?

I guess it really depends on the year. To be honest, the last few years in Victoria hasn't had great truffles. I haven't used a truffle supplier in Victoria since I've taken over Stokehouse. Since 2019. Ive mostly used WA. It's the most consistent product. It's always got a bit of bang. We go through a bit of volume so you can always get a better price.

Do you have a personal memory of eating a dish with truffle in it?

I was maybe 18 working for this angry Italian chef and he talked about these white Alba truffles so much. This was in Canada, Calgary. He was in his seventies and he was very angry and he would be very aggressive and he finally got Albas in and I was like, okay, what's the big deal? He cooked me just a simple risotto, and it was amazing. I thought, whoa, only that can taste like that or smell like that. Because for me it's mostly about the aroma. The taste is meh, it's really about that aroma. When you're eating it, you're smelling it at the same time.

That's really interesting because I spoke to someone recently about that age old thing about Proust and the Madeleine and the biting into something that can transport you. But aromas do that too, don't they?

Definitely.

Can you have too much of a good thing?

Definitely. The market for truffles is a crazy one. They have put it on this crazy pedestal in a weird kind of way. Obviously European truffles are the more supreme truffle, the more premium truffle. I think people overuse truffles. Definitely. And truffle oil is not a thing. It's wrong. It's really wrong. It's not the real thing. People tend to fake it with truffle oil. They'll hit a dish with truffle oil just to get that aroma. Most of the public think that that smell is actually what truffle is supposed to be. Whereas real truffle is really delicate.It's supposed to enhance. It's not really like the main star. It's an enhancer. Potatoes and mash, butter, fat, cream, truffle mixed through. Oh my god. That for me is the go. Have a steak and then truffle over the mash. We have mash on the menu waiting for truffles. Literally getting ready for them. Just hit the mash at the table.

So that's microplaning it or grating?

It depends on the dish. It really depends. But I like the microplane. With microplaning, you get more bang for your buck.

I tried using a microplane and I came off worse for wear. It makes my eyes smart. Just to think of that. That was, it's very painful. But I'm sure you are using them a lot better than me.

Just practice.

Or maybe wearing some kind of like metal mesh.

Like an oyster glove.

Do you think that the cost of living this year is going to be prohibitive to people enjoying truffles?

Oh, potentially. Or maybe truffle prices might come down because of it. Because potentially there might be a really cracking year for truffles. It actually might not hurt the average consumer. The people that go upstairs, they tend to save up for going upstairs or they're a regular person that has a bit of money and they're comfortable with spending money on dining out. It really depends. While the market is hard right now, you know it is, I think, we can do a truffle risotto, not too crazy expensive and execute it for everyone so then they can try it. It's just an additive. If you're using a crazy amount, you're probably overusing it a bit.

And finally, what would be your preferred wine with the truffle dish?

Oh, big call. Something French for sure. Something balanced. Something old world. Bourguignon, maybe. Bordeaux. Probably Bordeaux. Something out of Bordeaux. Just something balanced and lovely because you don't want anything too overpowering. But yeah, definitely something old world. It's a no brainer. Even some Italian wines can be perfect.

Roll on truffle season. I want that mash.

Stokehouse, 30 Jacka Boulevard, St Kilda