Truffles have long since tempted the human palate.  Because the truffle has been almost impossible to cultivate, it was in ancient times mostly available to the ruling classes and the very wealthy.  Even to those for whom the truffle was available, it was reserved for use only on very special occasions.

Truffles are first referred to in ancient Sumerian inscriptions which date back to the 20 century BC.  With its particularly unique, varied, climatic and environmental conditions, the region which is now Italy produced the greatest varieties of and the most intensely flavored truffles.  The ancient Romans used a variety of truffles in their cooking, including the Tuber melanosporum and the Tuber magnatum. They also used a variety of mushroom, called the terfez (Terfezia bouderi).  This mushroom is not strictly defined as a “truffle,” although it resembles what we today call a “truffle”.  It appears widely in northern Africa, coming to the Romans from the area of modern day Libya.  This “desert truffle,” as it was sometimes known, was used by the ancient Romans to absorb the flavors within their cuisine. The ancient Romans associated the truffle with the god Jupiter, because, according to myth, this pungent, magical gastronomic delicacy was created when Jupiter cast a lightning bolt near an oak tree.  Only an electrical charge from the heavens could create this enigmatic fruit of the earth which had so much savory, almost aphrodesiacal, power over mankind.

During the Middle Ages, truffles were used sparingly in cooking, perhaps because, since ancient times, they were believed to be too powerful in taste and aroma for the human palate and to possess almost magical powers of seduction over the human psyche and body.  In the 18th century, when cuisine in Europe, and, particularly French cuisine, began to include more local ingredients, the truffle began to be used in more recipes.  Truffles were for example very popular in Paris markets in the late 18th century, where they were imported from local truffle grounds. Yet, for all of their popularity, the truffle still resisted attempts at systematic cultivation and continued to remain an extremely sought after, highly valued and rare delicacy.  They were so expensive that they appeared for the most part only at the dinner tables of royalty.  Truffles from the Piedmont region of Italy were so highly esteemed, for example, that they were used by the House of Savoy as diplomatic gifts.

By the mid to later part of the 19th century, the reputation of the truffle as an exclusive culinary delicacy had spread to such an extent that a truffle culture began to develop in which enthusiasts planted groves of oak and other trees where truffles could grow in higher concentrations.  Tracts of land were cleared, particularly in northern Italy and elsewhere, where thousands of oak and other trees were planted in order to encourage truffle growth.  By the end of the 20th century, truffle production in Europe reached its peak in the hundreds of tons.  During the first half of the 20th century, as Europe became more industrialized and more people moved from rural areas to urban areas, truffle production decreased.  More land was used for industrial and other purposes and truffle production never again reached the levels it had at the end of the 20th century.  By 1945, the production of truffles was so severely reduced that prices began to escalate to very high levels.

Because of the growing popularity of truffles throughout the world in the past few decades, new areas for truffle production have been sought out and developed.  Truffles are now cultivated in Spain, Sweden, New Zealand, Australia, China and North Carolina.  Even with these new efforts to increase truffle production, the increased demand for the truffle has outpaced supply.  The Italian and French truffles are still considered to be the very finest in the world, and, there is only so much space available for truffle production in these countries.

For that reason, Italian and French truffles, the very best in the world, remain a very rare delicacy, and, they are in very high demand.  They command ever-higher prices on the open market.