1986: My Happy Life in Provence

Chapter 262 Premium Truffle!

Carpentras is very far from Lourmarin, 80 kilometers away, and it takes more than 2 hours to drive here from the Luberon Mountains.

It is located north of Avignon, in the heart of the Vaucluse department, at the foot of Mont Ventoux. It is a small town with a population of more than 2.

From 1229 to 1791 it was the seat of the Pope.

Well into the 20th and 21st centuries, Carpentras has been an important center of French Judaism and is home to the oldest synagogue in France, which has been in use since 1367.

Due to the frequent activities of Jews in Carpentras, business was highly developed, the most prominent of which was the truffle business.

Although it belongs to the Vaucluse department, this city does not experience the long-lasting northwest wind in November due to its terrain. Throughout the winter, there is rarely any wind here, making it an excellent tourist destination to experience Provence life in winter.

But in summer, Carpentras is not so comfortable.

It briefly held the record for the highest temperature in French history.

Due to the comfortable and windless winter, the most important 'black gold' trading market in Provence is set up here.

From November to March of the following year, a large number of stall owners selling truffles appear at the market in Carpentras every Friday morning, making it the largest distribution center for black truffles in the Vaucluse department.

And every December, a large-scale black truffle market is held here.

The annual black truffle market held at Place Aristide Briand is a feast for the "black gold". Every stall in the market displays products related to black truffles.

Here, customers can not only see black truffle sauce and truffle oil made with other ingredients, but also cosmetics that claim to extract nutrients from black truffles. In short, there are many types of products covering all walks of life.

However, most people who come to the special truffle market come for fresh truffles.

Even if you don't buy anything, you must come and visit.

Because only at the special truffle market in Carpentras can you have the opportunity to see a large number of black truffles as big as a child's fist.

This kind of fine truffle can usually only be seen in high-end restaurants, but it can be found everywhere at the special truffle market in Carpentras. There are even top truffle hunters pulling a cart of this quality fine truffles and selling them on the street.

"The truffle market in Carpentras never disappoints me." Jacques, wearing a gray tweed coat, pushed his black-framed glasses and looked around on the street.

How could he miss this truffle festival when he has extremely high requirements for truffles?

Next to him, Llorente, who was wearing a suit and a top hat, joked:

"Jacques, I wish you could spend as much money on cheese as you do on truffles."

The Arnault family has always maintained a close cooperative relationship with Jacques' Michelin restaurant. Llorente, who is responsible for the Vaucluse business, is naturally close to Jacques, a major client.

But this 'close' is only one-sided.

Jacques's eyes wandered from stall to stall, and he said in a cold tone:
"Llorente, if you really want to talk about truffles and cheese, I'm willing to talk to you, but if you have other ideas, such as inviting me to join an alliance, I advise you to save your thoughts."

Whenever there was a suitable opportunity, Llorente would invite Jacques to join his 'Vaucluse Gourmet Alliance', but Jacques, who was not interested in banding together and had a noble character, was not interested at all.

Llorente put his hands behind his back, smiled and shook his head:

"Jacques, you're starting to sound more and more like Ines."

That heartless woman often didn't give Llorente a chance to speak and was used to shutting him up early.

Jacques's emotional intelligence seemed to be offline for a short time:

"Thank you for the compliment, Ines has always been the kind of person I wanted to be."

Llorente continued on this topic:
"Then you should join the 'Vaucluse Gourmet Alliance'. Ines has led Michelin to become the best magazine in Provence, and there are more than a dozen Michelin restaurants like yours. You should think about how to become the best one among them."

Jacques gave Llorente no face at all:
“I guess you and other Michelin restaurants say the same thing?”

Llorente smiled and said:
"But it is true. Don't you need more fame and reputation? I can help you."

Jacques stopped in front of a stall, picked up a cut truffle and put it to his nose to smell it:
"You think my restaurant lacks prestige and fame?"

Llorente glanced at this arrogant guy and said in a complicated tone:
"Wouldn't it be better to have more?"

Jacques put down the truffle and distanced himself from Llorente to express his attitude.

Llorente knew that today's lobbying quota had been used up, and if he continued, this guy might get angry, so he smiled and started the next topic:
"With so many goodies, how much should I buy today? Can I go to your restaurant tomorrow and eat steak and pasta covered with truffles?"

Jacques's restaurant in Bonnieux is one of the best in Provence for truffles, and he is very generous with his ingredients.

Llorente, who lives in Gordes, often eats there with his elderly wife and family.

Seeing that Llorente finally stopped mentioning the alliance, Jacques' attitude improved a little.

He is just arrogant and doesn't like Llorente's personality, but he is not stupid.

Llorente has an extraordinary status in the gastronomic world of Provence and Vaucluse, so we have to give him some face.

"I can't buy too much. My truffle partner will supply me a portion every week." Jacques said in a light tone.

Jacques' restaurant only uses truffles that are less than three days old. Buying too many would be a waste.

Llorente looked at him sideways, somewhat surprised:
"You don't go to the market to pick your own truffles?"

Jacques has always had the habit of visiting markets. He likes to select high-quality fresh truffles by himself. He can often be seen at several markets near Bonnieux in winter.

A long time ago, Llorente asked Jacques why he didn't find a truffle supplier, which would save him a lot of trouble.

Jacques said that truffles are no different from other ingredients, so it’s safer to choose them yourself.

Are the requirements lowered now?
Jacques pushed his black-framed glasses and didn't want to explain too much:

“Met a nice truffle hunter friend.”

Llorente responded enthusiastically:

"What a coincidence. I also know several excellent truffle hunters. They are all here today. Come on, I'll take you to their stalls to have a look."

This is how you activate your network resources.

Introduce friend A and friend B to each other. No matter whether the cooperation is successful or not, they will thank me anyway.

Jacques no longer wanted to stay with the noisy Lunliute, he just wanted to stroll around the market quietly:
"You don't have to accompany me, I'll just walk around. There are so many powerful guys here today, you should go and accompany them."

Llorente laughed and said:
"Those people are not as important as you. I'll go find them after you've picked out the truffles." Llorente's enthusiasm was met with only Jacques' cold response:

"But I want to go shopping by myself."

Llorente was briefly embarrassed, thinking that this was a really tough nut to crack.

By chance someone came to him and said that a difficult situation had arisen at a stall in the market.

In order to become the "boss" of the Vaucluse gastronomy, Llorente will participate in all kinds of activities and strive to accumulate a good-looking and good-sounding resume for himself.

What if something goes wrong in an activity he participates in?
"What happened?" Llorente asked seriously.

The man said quickly:
"A stall owner brought in a premium truffle, and several truffle brokers started arguing with each other."

Llorente was delighted at first:
"Another special grade? Have you taken it to the market center for testing?"

In the formal truffle trading market, the factors that determine the quality of truffles are not just size.

Because what is most in demand at the Carpentras truffle market is large truffles.

Professionals will grade truffles based on the skin, size and weight, aroma, texture and maturity.

The standards for premium black truffles include but are not limited to:
The skin scales are even and tight, without cracks or wormholes, and the color is dark black;

Round or oval shapes are preferred, while deformed or flat shapes will be downgraded;
The scent is rich and multi-layered, and can be described as notes of earth, hazelnut, chocolate, and wetland moss;

The aroma can last for 4-6 hours after shaving;

The cut surface is marbled, with black and white patterns;

Under the microscope, spores appear dark brown (fully mature), light brown if immature, black if over-mature, and so on.

Only after professional testing can a truffle be defined as special grade, and distinguished from premium, first grade and ordinary grade.

At the Carpentras market, if a good seedling of a premium truffle appears, it will be sent to the center of the market to be tested in public.

If it is given the special title, a round of competition will immediately begin, because at this time Carpentras gathers almost all truffle distributors and truffle brokers in Provence.

This person described it as "superior" truffles. Llorente's first reaction was that it had been tested. Unexpectedly, the staff member said anxiously:
"The trouble happened because someone stopped the truffles on the way to the market for testing. The stall owner was a newcomer and didn't know that these truffles, which could potentially become top-grade truffles, had to be sent to the market center for testing, so he just put them out there. Now it's too late to leave because there are people everywhere."

Llorente frowned and said:
"Are those truffle brokers new too? Why are they in such a hurry when the truffles haven't been identified yet? Find someone else to go find Alphonse and ask him to maintain order. They should still give face to the most senior truffle broker in Provence and not disrupt the market order."

The staff member clapped his hands anxiously:

"Mr. Alphonse was the one who shouted the loudest at the scene! He was the one who stopped the stall owner from leaving. We had no way to deal with him, so we came to you because we had no other choice."

"Alfonse, he..." Llorente was stunned for a moment, then he became serious, "Take me to see what kind of truffle it is that could make Alphonse so nervous?"

"I don't know. I didn't even get in." The man led Llorente. "But you should know the stall owner. You were the one who arranged for him to come in."

Llorente was happy again.

This time he took the initiative to invite many outstanding truffle hunters from Provence. Although they could come on their own, his intervention invisibly increased their favorability.

You see, I have you in my heart, right?
"Gerald, Fernando or Lucian?" Llorente stopped midway through his sentence.

No, no, it’s a newcomer.

It can't be the one he arranged to come in -

"Ronan?" Llorente asked in surprise.

Is his main business a restaurant or a truffle hunter?
"Yes, yes, it's him!" The staff quickened their pace.

Jacques suddenly caught up with them and walked side by side with Llorente.

Llorente asked him:
"Don't you want to go shopping by yourself?"

Jacques actually had an 'angry' expression on his face:

"Ronan is my truffle supplier. I'm going to ask him why he doesn't just send the good ones to me."

The Place de Briand, where the market is held, is a very open area in the center of Carpentras, unlike other village markets which are held in narrow alleys.

But at this time, a certain section of the road in the market was completely blocked. The road, at least six or seven meters wide, was filled with people who wanted to squeeze into a stall to take a look.

Llorente is also a well-known figure in Provence.

There are many professional truffle brokers gathered around this stall, and they all have some kind of friendship with Llorente or are interested in currying favor with him.

Although everyone wanted to squeeze in, they still politely made way for Llorente and Jacques.

"Please make way, please make way!" Llorente moved forward with difficulty. When he was two or three meters away from the stalls, he could roughly see the situation on a part of the stalls.

There were several baskets that looked like they were woven with vines on the table, filled with freshly cleaned truffles.

There aren’t many truffles at the market. They look of good quality, but nothing special.

Just at this moment, he saw a familiar figure wearing a beret, and quickly took two photos:
"Alphonse, get these people out of here!"

Alphonse said without turning his head:
"Don't bother me until I trade it."

Llorente said with a headache:
"Send it to the market for appraisal first. How can you trade it first and then appraise it?"

The price of super truffles is completely different from that of fine truffles. Are you willing to be cheated?

Alphonse in front of him suddenly turned his head and said frantically:

"That truffle must be top grade. My eyes are the detector. Get out of here, Llorente. Don't delay my business!"

When Alphonse turned around, a gap finally appeared in the crowd, allowing Llorente to see everything on the stall.

It turned out that on the side of those ordinary baskets, there were two other baskets covered with red and white tablecloths, and the diameter of the truffles were all over 6 cm.

In one of the baskets, there was a super-large truffle that was nearly ten times larger than a normal truffle, and it almost took up half of the basket.

Llorente snatched Alphonse's beret off and leaned over to take a closer look:
“Oh my God, I’ve never seen a black truffle that big!”

(End of this chapter)