Truffles: The Most Expensive Food in the World

Urbani: No, they can't do anything. We can't do anything. You're always on the phone, many telephones, saying, "Sorry, sorry, I don't have, I don't have." I wish I had 100 tons a day to make everybody happy.

In France, the truffle is so revered that in the village of Uzes, a special mass is held in its honor. Churchgoers not only put money in the collection plate, they also add truffles. There's a reason for the special prayers: Because of climate change, the harvests are down from an annual haul of 2,000 tons of truffles 100 years ago, to just 30 tons today. The scarcity and high prices have attracted elements of organized crime who've turned the truffle trade into something resembling the drug trade.

Bruno: The reality is, behind the popularity of the truffle lies a dangerous world.

[Bruno: My house is your house.]

One of Europe's most famous truffle connoisseurs is the larger-than-life French chef and restaurateur known simply as Bruno.

Stahl: Is it like the Mafia?

Bruno: Yes.

Stahl: Really?

Bruno: Yes, it's a good name? Yes, the Mafia, yes. You understand? It's very dangerous for me.

At Bruno's restaurant, in the heart of Provence, wealthy Europeans helicopter in from Paris and Monaco, just to eat lunch. Bruno goes through about 5 tons of truffles a year, which his chefs shave on everything from potatoes to this amazing lobster dish.

But Bruno says the growing black market has led to people coming to his place not just to eat truffles, but to steal them.

Stahl: The robbers came and got your truffles?

Bruno: Yes, they stole 200 kilos of truffles.

Stahl: 200 kilos from you?

Bruno: They didn't steal my money! They stole my truffles!

Some of the stolen truffles, we were told, are brought to markets like this one in Richerenches where middle men sell out of the backs of cars or trucks. But large quantities change hands in back alleys.

We witnessed this transaction where the buyers and sellers wanted their identities hidden. In less than a minute, 50 pounds of truffles were exchanged for 30,000 euros - about $40,000 - with no questions asked about where the truffles came from.

Michel Tournayre: There's a problem of confidentiality and secrecy. And that encourages a Mafia-like attitude.

Michel Tournayre, a third generation truffle farmer, says that local trufflers have been car-jacked, beaten with baseball bats and even killed. Thieves came and stole his truffles, his trees and worse, his dogs.

Stahl: When they took your dogs, what did you do?

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[NorweiganVikingPrincess]

60 minutes didn't do their homework or they would have learned the Urbani was convicted of fraud. And Ms. Urbani was the one who encouraged the Chinese to sell their truffles. Plus the truffle production has be down for decades but that's another story.

[amerilatino]

Let the clueless fools spin and prance over expensive fetishes and wild fungi that look like fuzzy livestock turds. In the meantime, I will soon retire to half a million dollars in AAA funds, general obligation bond portfolios and Mercury accounts amassed by 32 years of driving used, cheap cars, packing brown bag lunches and doing quiet side work. Then I will move to Belize, the Dominican Republic or Costa Rica where I can feed the tropical birds from my porch, wear light linens and Panama hats all year, consume cigars and seafood that are forbidden by law in the U.S. and drink daiquiris as I absolutely, positively refuse to speak English and acknowledge all solicitations and proposals that are made to me.

[Double G100]

Facinating segment.

It would be great to have another segment that hits a little closer to home such as the issue with Chinese Honey being illegally imported into the US through other countries to avoid the tarrifs, and some of the chemicals found in some of the chinese honey imports.

[mvob]

wow how lame are the folks who admin this page, deleting my past posts. freedom of expression is to much for you people at CBS? So Sad

[mike1341]

For decades, American wine makers have been mocked and sneered at by their counterparts in Europe. Aside from the unique soil, water and climate where grapes are being raised in Europe, American wine industry has vastly adopted new technology and modern science and engineered its wines to meet the market taste. The reality is, no matter how good the old world claims it's wines are they are losing ground while wines from the new world, i.e. U.S., Australia and New Zealand and South America are steadily gaining market share. I can't afford to buy a dish with truffles so I don't know how it tastes like. But I wonder if the difference between inferior Chinese truffles and their superior French or Italian cousins is as big as claimed in the program, or if the superiority is actually a mixture of distinctive quality, prestige, arrogance and exertive influence from so-called experts? Had a blind taste testing being done, can ordinary people like me tell the difference? In today's media, anything from China must be bad. If it is true, then I must be a bad human being, because I come from China too.

[stuwerb]

Chinese truffles are junk. And there are no enforced regulations on the soil quality from which they are harvested. Could be next to an e-waste junkyard for all we know.

[stuwerb]

...Good hearty bottom 20%'er food. Lots of minearls.

[stuwerb]

But how nutritious are they? Are they considered a super food like blueberries?

[The_rest_of_us]

I arrived home after my Occupy Olympia (Washington State) meeting just in time to watch 60 Minutes. The Truffle Story? You have to be kidding. Talk about the lifestyles of the 1%. I can really identify with people who fly a helicopter to go have lunch at their favorite restaurant. Who spend $150 just to buy a hamburger. In Washington State a single person who receives food stamps get $150 per month. Try to eat well off of $5 a day. Is there any wonder there is a Occupy Movement.

Part of the 99% and long time 60 Minutes viewer.

[stuwerb]

I think it's time for the 1% to blow off the frivolous goodies like truffles, caviar, and rare vintage wines, and just buy up all the super-nutritious foods like blueberries and raspberries and salad greens (foods with the highest ANDI scores), and block those with less money from getting them. Our society should be set up so that the richer one is, the more nutritious the foods one can access -- an extension of the "survival for the fittest" concept! I'm sure I can get some buy-in from Mitt Romney and John Beener for that proposal.

[Roliwolf]

I'm really with you on this one! Who in the world, given the state of our economy, thought that this would make a good story? Unbelieveable!

[sarah_mcneil]

I completely agree with this comment. I was shocked and disappointed that 60 Minutes would air such a ridiculous story. Leslie Stahl demonstrated probably the worst journalistic values I've seen on a show that used to be known for its heavy-hitting, high caliber news reporting. Watching her stroll through the hills of France, giddy with the excitement of truffle hunting with probably some of the richest people in France was offensive. It was insulting to see her sip wine and roll her eyes with the Urbanis as they discussed the sad state of affairs regarding "knock off" truffle flakes being sold in the U.S. Get with it 60 Minutes; the truffles saga is a high-class problem and your viewers are smarter than this, more grounded then you give them credit and they want real news.

[Bojax39]

"European white truffles can sell for as much as $3,600 a pound, making them and their fellow fungi the most expensive food in the world."

Nonsense. The price of truffles is dwarfed by the cost of the spice saffron at up to $5000+ US dollars a pound depending upon supply.

Saffron is the reproductive parts of a certain breed of flowering crocus and must be gathered by hand, one tiny thread at a time. 90% of the world's saffron production comes out of Iran.

[rr03kx]

Saffron is a spice. Maybe they don't consider that as food.

[Dunestrider]

Wow, just check out the photograph for this story! Someone in the background of the photo is standing, wearing a full-length fur coat. Oh, those glorious 1%ers! Have they no shame?

[Dunestrider]

OK, EmpireGeorge. You don't need a fur coat to stay warm. Apparently you rich people haven't figured it out yet.

[Dunestrider]

I'm pretty sure saffron is far more expensive than truffles. Yes, saffron is technically a spice, but if you are quibbling over definitions, food is defined as "any nutritious substance that people or animals eat or drink, or that plants absorb, in order to maintain life and growth". Good saffron (from Kashmir) sells for $120 for 1/4 ounce. Which equals $7680 a pound, twice the price of stinking French mushrooms. Fortunately, you only need a tiny bit of saffron. Anyone who has ever smelled saffron's fragrance knows that it is certainly worth it.