I recently saw an Instagram post from Robert at GGs Gourmet Food where he was heralding truffle season. It got me thinking. I don’t know much about truffles but they do seem to cause a stir in certain circles. Some refer to them as black gold, others as a culinary treasure. I wanted to find out what makes them so special, so I had a chat to Dion Range at Stonebarn Truffles in WA. He gave me the very well told back story to truffle cultivation, which was fascinating. Then I got in touch with some of the lovely chefs I have spoken to in the past to hear how they use truffles. A big thank you to Julian Hills at Navi, Anni Smithers from Du Fermier in Trentham, Mark Ebbels at Re’Em in the Yarra Valley, Jordan Clay at Pipi’s Kiosk, Jason Staudt at Stokehouse, Gabriele Coniglio at Officine Gastronomica Italiana and Ryan Lynch at Locavore Studio. Unfortunately and embarrassingly, I had some technology challenges and my excellent conversation with Julian was lost. Julian loves truffles and knows a lot about them. He runs a month of truffle dinners in July where each course celebrates a truffle from a different region of Australia, and he talks through the importance of terroir in their aroma and flavour with the lucky diners. This is definitely a dinner to look out for and secure a booking. I really enjoyed putting this series together. It’s a new concept for me and I’d love to hear your thoughts. Thank you to Robert at GGs Gourmet Foods for the inspiration and help with putting this together.