Where to Find Glorious White Truffles This Season in Los Angeles

‘Tis the season for white truffles, even in the midst of a 2017 market shortage. Italy’s dry, hot fall drove truffle prices as high as $5,000 per kilo, almost double from last year, but regardless several upscale Los Angeles restaurants continue to dish the stuff out with reckless abandon. Below are some of the LA restaurants that feature far more than a drizzle of truffle oil, with complete truffle tasting menus or specific dishes dedicated to the highly-coveted dish finisher.

Providence

Truffles are expected at Providence, and Michael Cimarusti’s team can create a six-to-eight course white truffle menu from $600 to $800 per person. Diners can try the spiny lobster with macadamia and white truffle, or add white truffles to Providence’s omelette, pasta, risotto, or soft scrambled eggs at market price.

Maude Restaurant

Maude’s nine-course tasting menu has traditionally centered around a single ingredient every month.This month, half of the menu flaunts tried-and-true Maude white truffle dishes. and the same goes for December, only with black truffles. A reminder: as Eater LA reported in June, Maude will close its doors at the end of 2017 to revamp and reopen in early 2018, ditching the single-ingredient menu along the way.

Nerano

Chef Michael Lisi created a four-course white truffle menu at Nerano. The Beverly Hills restaurant is suprisingly reasonable considering the truffle market’s prices. Lisi’s menu includes: pan seared sea bream filet, porcini mushrooms, thyme, white wine riduzione, roasted rainbow fingerling potatoes, with shaved Alba white truffle; and a hazelnut and truffle gelato.

Osteria Mozza

While eschewing a particular tasting menu, the Osteria Mozza crew are happy to add white truffles to selected dishes, with $73 yielding three grams of white truffle excess.

Il Ristorante di Giorgio Baldi

In what appears to be the most reasonably-priced truffle menu in town, Il Ristorante di Giorgio Baldi offers two white truffle pastas for $25, and a $29 beef carpaccio with melted fontina cheese and cream.

• Truffle trouble: prices of prized tuber double in Italy after driest autumn for decades [The Telegraph]
• Truffle Prices Skyrocket to Over $3,000 a Pound [Eater SF]