I learned so many interesting things I did not know from the truffle world. A very well-detailed book.

The author takes us on a journey deep into the life of farmers, buyers, hunters and star chefs as we learn everything there is about the life of truffles.

Deeply reported and elegantly written, this page-turning exposé documents the dark, sometimes deadly crimes at each level of the truffle’s path from ground to plate, making sense of an industry that traffics in scarcity, seduction, and cash. Through it all, a question lingers: What, other than money, draws people to these dirt-covered jewels?

On the surface, this probably is not a book I would gravitate towards (a book about fancy mushrooms?), but within the a couple pages, the reader will be hooked in the nonfiction accounts of the trouble people can get into just to get their hands on a coveted truffle. I heard about some of the shady dealings involving this industry and this book pulled the curtain back even more. A great, entertaining and informative read.

I really enjoyed a great many things about this book. Characters were fleshed out and the plot was well spaced. Some of the secondary storylines could've used a bit more page space but all in all an enjoyable read!

I have a secret. I have been known to travel without truffle salt unlike Oprah. This is one of the facts I learned in this book. Oprah loves her truffles especially truffle salt and truffle zest and never leaves home without them. I will confess that I have never knowingly eaten truffles but I did order some truffle zest after I finished the book. I hadn't realized how complex the truffle world is.

I will tell you that I learned that truffles from Italy are the best and heaven forbid that you eat any from Croatia or China. If you eat a truffle product like truffle butter or oil you are probably eating inferior truffles. I wouldn't know the difference but there is a big one and the experts can tell you that is more than money. It's about the taste.

The book delves into the growth of truffles which tend to grow under trees with acorns. Pigs are not good to find them as they don't want to give them up. They want to eat them. The best truffle finders are dogs which has led to a big problem in Italy. People are kidnapping and poisoning the dogs because truffles are a big business. It's largely unregulated and the profit margin is quite high. The laws are quite lax and growers are getting robbed, beaten and killed for their product. Who knew?

This is a fascinating look at the truffle industry from start to finish. It talks about growing and the final product of a chef shaving it onto the plate. There is an extended peek at the lawlessness surrounding it and also the enjoyment of a good truffle. It was very informative and really opened my eyes. I can't wait until I try one.

Thank you NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for a fair review.

I enjoyed this fascinating book. It reminded me of Salt and Cod, both by Mark Kurlansky, but with a twist true-crime. It was a little hard to follow at some times, but the history and the ways farmers and others banded together to protect something so valuable kept me going. I can't say that I loved it, I do believe that I will recommend this to friends.

I posted a small review on GoodReads and this is what I said:

“I am not a reviewer by any stretch of the imagination. I won’t be rewriting the description of this book which others do so much better than I could. I requested a copy of this book because I am preparing a program for the fall and thought it would fit in nicely. This book had me hooked from the very start. I never knew much about truffles. I read about them in books. I certainly have never had one or eaten “the shavings” of one. They must be super special to elicit all the crimes that have been committed just to get them from the land to the table. This book was an education to me on a special mushroom. I will definitely be using this book in my program. I hope others will like it as well.”

Thank you for letting me have this ARC in advance. As I said above, I will definitely be promoting this book at my fall program.

If you are alike I assume a lot of people you have heard of truffles and may know that they are an expensive treat but I have not had the opportunity to try them. I first heard of a little more in depth when I heard an article on NPR and ended up reading "Truffle Boy" which got me interested and when I seen this book coming out I had to read it. This book covers all aspects of the truffle industry. You follow the hunters and farmers of truffles and the many dilemmas they face from individuals stealing their truffles and or sabotaging the efforts to find these little jewels of gold. Go figure anything in our society were there is anything of value there will be somebody willing to steal it for themselves.

This also gives you history how this industry came about and how it has grown and the business that developed with it and how even the best seems that they all practice some unsavory practices in the name of making sales.If you have any interest in truffles or just want to expand your knowledge give this book a read.

I have never known much about truffles so was intrigued by the book description. It is every bit as entertaining as I expected. Most people probably will never eat a truffle or become rich by harvesting them but the story gives some insight into what type of community exists just to supply truffles to higher end menus. This was definitely a different topic and style than my everyday mystery/thriller, but I'm pretty happy I decided to read it.

I just could not get into this book, even though it sounded fascinating when I requested it. It would be a great read for people really interested in truffles (though I thought I was). It basically tells hundreds of years of history of various people making money off finding, selling and stealing truffles. Many of them are terrible people and do terrible things like poison dogs (lots of them). Sorry, but it was a miss for me.

The book’s subtitle – A Tale of Mystery, Mayhem, and Manipulation in the Shadowy Market of the World’s Most Expensive Fungus – gives you a pretty good idea of what’s to come. It really isn’t an exaggeration – I always knew that truffles were an expensive luxury and that they were difficult to harvest, but I never realized how insanely competitive the truffle market really is.

This incredibly well-researched and well-written exposé delves into the dark side of the truffle business – a world where the truffle supply is filled with secrets, sabotage, fraud, thefts and more. Many will be surprised to learn how antiquated the truffle business is, considering how expensive and sought-after the delicacy is. The harvest of a “great” truffle is based more on the whims of nature, a bit of luck, and old-fashioned know-how, than on anything science can predict.

Jacobs does a great job of profiling all the steps it takes to bring a truffle from the dirt in the ground to the most expensive tables in the best restaurants in the world. The journey is intriguing and the characters are straight out of crime novels.

Some of the tales that this book tells read like a murder-mystery fiction more than a culinary non-fiction book. I mean, seriously – planting poisoned meatballs in the hopes of eliminating a rival’s truffle-hunting dog? Could anyone even make this stuff up?

But it’s all true. The truffle business is BRUTAL and incredibly flawed and Jacobs does a masterful job of bringing it all to life. I know that not everyone enjoys single-subject culinary histories like I do. I devour them (pun intended). Some, I admit, can be pretty boring, while others are surprisingly entertaining. Luckily for me, The Truffle Underground falls into the latter category. Jacobs is an investigative reporter and it really shows in the research evident in the book. However, what makes this book stand out among many other similar nonfiction books is that amongst all the facts and quotes and interviews, there’s an incredible story going on and Jacobs skillfully weaves that into his hard-boiled facts.

Food lovers will really enjoy this look into the world behind the truffle (although they may not be too happy to hear that their truffle salts and truffle oils are most likely fake). For those that are less food obsessed, this book is interesting and engaging enough that many will still find lots to enjoy.

*** Thank you to the publisher, Crown Publishing/Clarkson Potter, and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

An interesting look into the high-stakes world of truffles. This high-priced and rare ingredient has become newly trendy with truffle french fries appearing on mid-range restaurant menus regularly and truffle olive oil sold in most groceries. But how much do you know about how they come to your kitchen and table?

This book explores everything from the hunters in France and Italy to the chefs who use it in the restaurants.

You'll find it a fascinating story full of romance and more than a bit of criminal activity and fraud.

This is a fascinating book. Knowing how difficult it is to get truffles, but all the theft and crime behind them is here. Investigative journalist Ryan Jacobs research’s and discovers the dark side of the truffle industry. Wee written, great read.

In The Truffle Underground, investigative journalist, Ryan Jacobs takes readers through the world of truffles. From the bare-bones understanding that farmers and biologists have about how truffles grow and can be cultivated, to the rich and famous obsession with the scarce fungus; detailing the crimes against the specialized truffle-sniffing dogs required for harvest and the fraud that runs rampant in the legitimate and black markets for the elusive gourmet ingredient, Jacobs explores the interesting and remarkably complicated world of truffles.

In the tradition of Susan Orlean, Jacob goes deeper and deeper into an obsessive, but little written about world to great effect. The topic reminds me of the many books I’ve read about art forgery and heists and of the 17th century tulip fever in Amsterdam. I hope that other writers will pick up the mantle and dive deeper into this world and its characters, or use this industry as the jumping off point for some entertaining fiction.

The larger industry has managed to manufacture an image of pure beauty and romance for its consumers. "They see the truffle on the table...but before that, they don't know anything. They don't know the underworld."

Truffles, as one of the world's most expensive gourmet delicacies, have a complex economic supply chain that extends far beyond the awareness of their wealthy consumers. The finest and most sought-after varieties are naturally the most costly - the Alba white truffle, Tuber magnatum pico, or black winter truffle, Tuber melanosporum. But where there's a lot of money to be made, fraud, theft, deceit, sabotage, and even darker criminal elements find their way into the market economy, and so it's been in the dark, secretive economy behind the world's most expensive fungus.

Ryan Jacobs, an investigative reporter with outlets including The Atlantic, Mother Jones, and currently deputy editor and investigations lead at Pacific Standard, deep dives into the mysterious market environment in which diners are willing to pay sky-high prices for the privilege of having rare, exclusive tubers on their plates without the ability to discern what they're actually eating. Interviewing many links along this supply chain, from truffle hunters and dog trainers to product inspectors and internationally renowned traders, he uncovers the numerous loopholes where fraud of various stripes is rife in the famously secretive industry.

He also fascinatingly covers why truffles are so precious. Their very delicate existence is extremely difficult to come by:

"The truffle's existence and scarcity depend on a long and circuitous collision of natural events that the spore and later fungus must encounter before it even has the chance to fruit. Against chance, many hundreds of conditions must align. And even when they do, the truffle presents only a narrow window of opportunity for foragers to harvest, before it rots in the ground."

A major aspect of the criminal underworld in the truffle market revolves around truffle-sniffing dogs. We learn dogs are used more often than pigs, because it's easier to train them to drop the truffle if it's in their mouths. Truffle hunters spend great amounts of time and money training their dogs, but rival hunters plant poisoned meatballs, either to eliminate promising dogs or scare them off truffle-rich territory. It's vicious and disturbing.

I was surprised to learn how little regulation exists in this industry, quite simply: "There are no truffle regulators to ensure the sanctity and purity of the product that ends up on plates across the world." This seems unbelievable, not only because of the massive amounts of money involved, but how relatively easy it is to trick people. It's up to sometimes unscrupulous dealers, and big, long-established companies have been involved in grifting despite their promises of experienced buyers.

Even truffle aficionados don't always seem to know what they're eating, making easy marks for cheap product with high prices - Jacobs calls it a "geographic grift" using lesser fungi grown in Slovenia and Hungary and alleged to be the real Italian deal. He describes "truffle fraudsters" as "understand[ing] who their target market is: diners looking to buy truffles for what they represent - class, wealth, refinement - rather than for what they really are." Beware any product with a low price point claiming to be the prized black or white truffles, as it's more likely made with cheap infused oils or poor-quality, junky leftovers swept off the floor, basically. A supermarket truffle pizza is the store-brand 99-cent hot dog of the truffle world, unfortunately. With truffles, if it seems too good -- or inexpensive -- to be true, it is.

Then there's the unusual, difficult nature of the forest-to-table harvesting and marketing endeavor. It's difficult, labor-intensive with potentially low reward, and not adaptable to industrial processes:

"The farmer must pry his prizes from the hound's mouth, drive them to market, and approach a middleman, who has the audacity to haggle him down from his asking price, if he's intrigued enough by the shape and quality of the specimens to make an offer at all. It's a medieval undertaking in a smartphone world."

As well written and fascinating as some parts were, I did find that I'm not quite as interested in the topic as I thought I'd be. This isn't any fault of the author's - sometimes in a book with a topic I'm moderately interested in, I end up surprised how invested I become over the course of it, and sometimes it just goes the other way. I'm not a truffle fan myself, and perhaps being one is a necessary prerequisite to fully appreciate this expose.

For those who are, this provides an eerie, unsettling, and detailed account of what makes up the process from a truffle's delicate growth to getting it on a table, especially if the dish is expensive and the truffle allegedly a finer one. You get what you pay for is extremely applicable here. Although it seems that the world of truffles is one in which, even if you're willing to shell out the big bucks, you may not be getting what you think. Fast-paced, information-packed, and endlessly surprising.

I love truffles, and never realized the journey the truffle took to get on my plate! Assault, robbery and even murder (of dogs). What a fascinating story this is. I had read that many of the flavorings we think are real truffles are actually chemically-enhanced, like fake truffle oil, and after reading about the staggering amounts of money involved in the truffle trade I will pay much closer attention to what is a real and what is fake.

Thanks to Crown Publishing/Clarkson Potter and NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Fascinating book. A true crime book that reads like a novel. Who would have thought little mushrooms could cause so much craziness. I highly recommend it.

Well written and captivating, a history that not many people even consider.

Truffles are a flavor that is becoming better known today than it was 30 years ago when only the rich could afford it. The history behind this interesting flavor is unique and interesting.

A good novel for anyone interested. Well written.

A nonfiction account of various illegal goings-on in the production and sale of truffles, from small-scale individual hunters and farmers to vast, multinational corporations. The main thing I learned from this book is that a) despite eating a lot of food labeled "truffle", I've probably never had a real truffle (either black, technically the Italian winter black truffle or <i>Tuber melanosporum</i>, or white, technically the Alba white truffle or <i>Tuber magnatum</i>) and b) there are way, way more species of truffle than I ever realized. Indeed, a great deal of the "mystery, mayhem, and manipulation" involves substituting a species worth less for one of the culinary greats. Which brings me to my main problem with Jacobs's writing: a desperate need for more background information. What does it mean, really, if you buy an Italian black winter truffle and get a Chinese truffle (<i>Tuber indicum</i> or <i>Tuber himalayensis</i>) instead? Is it more or less the same thing, just lacking a certain terroir and cache, like buying a sparkling white wine instead of authentic champagne? Is it good but noticeably lesser in quality? Is it straight-up poisonous or otherwise something no one would ever knowingly purchase? Based on Jacobs's book alone, I have no idea where Chinese truffles fall on this possible spectrum. (The internet suggests Chinese truffles would be the middle category, with maybe a very rare chance of the third, if certain chemicals have been used to enhance the flavor and scent.) The same question applies to desert truffles (grown in the Middle East and North Africa), black summer truffles (France and Italy), pecan truffles (USA), and truffles of various species grown in Eastern Europe (Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Albania, Croatia, Hungary, or Slovenia). I wanted to know more about the basics of truffles – what they are, how they differ – but Jacobs jumps straight to fairly complicated questions without laying out the groundwork.

However, substituting one truffle for another isn't the only kind of crime Jacobs covers. He talks to truffle farmers who see their orchards regularly hit by thieves, truffle hunters who have their dogs poisoned or kidnapped (there is a <i>lot</i> of dog harm in this book, for those who are sensitive to that), import companies that serve as fronts for the mob, crime syndicates that use young teenagers to carry out thefts,business innovators who retreat into isolated paranoia, million-dollar heists, and several murders. Which leads me to another problem: Jacobs talks to a lot of people, in multiple countries, involved with many companies, and as a result there are an abundance of names, many quite similar to one another. I had a great deal of trouble keeping everyone and every scheme straight. <i>The Truffle Underground</i> could really have benefited from one of those character lists you get at the front of epic fantasy novels.

Overall it's a fascinating topic, and Jacobs certainly kept me turning the pages. (And craving truffles.) But I think there's a much better book on the same topic waiting to be written, by someone who's better organized and more skillful.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2805964378

Who knew????
Who knew that a simple fungus could lead to assaults, the murder of dogs, robberies, fraud, and more! A mushroom, highly sought after by chefs all over the world, causes untold damages to people all over Italy and France.
In fairness, growing up in Wisconsin, morel mushrooms were the "truffle" of our time. People guarded morel "honey holes" with a great deal of secrecy. But I never heard of anything like the extreme behaviors the author documents.
From the simplest farmer, to multi-national corporations, everyone involved in the pursuit of truffles seems to go a bit wacky. Granted, there's a good deal of money to be made, but what in the world gets into people?
The author has written an intriguing look into the truffle world. I found myself just shaking my head at some of the antics he describes. It's really too bad. While I think truffles are okay, I also think that they are highly overrated. Just another status symbol for people to hold over each other's heads, like who has the biggest and best boat, car, or the rarest wine.

Truffles. You wouldnt think that something so simple as a fungus could cause so much trouble in the world. Its really just something we want to eat, and tastes good, but through a myriad of factors, including the difficulty with cultivating them as well as the increased difficulty of finding them, the crime involved in truffles is bound to blossom.

This book is really interesting, there is so much to learn about truffles here and really makes me question everything that I thought I knew about the product as well as its derivatives. The sheer amount of crime and fraud around this one seemly simple product is really astounding.

What I didnt like about this book:

Probably the biggest thing about this book that I didnt love was the way that it was told. I understand the author really is a journalist who was so taken with the subject that he decided to sit down and research and entire book about it but at times the books just feel like a bunch of articles that while related someone had strung together in book format. I didnt really love the perspective and while it might be good for some people it just wasnt for me.

What I did like about this book:

Other than the way the book was written, I really loved the content, and a lot of it was so interesting to me that I was sucked into it. I really made me stop and think not only about truffles and how many different ways that a simple person could be defrauded but it also made me think about all the other products that I know and love and wonder about how a person that didnt know a product could be taken advantage of. THings like cheese, or proscuitto or many other things that are coming from europe could very easily be passed off as the real thing when they are very much not. The parts where Jacobs talks about the dognappers, and the dog poisoning is very interesting but also tugs at your heartstrings a bit due to the hunter that is losing a part of his family.

Overall a facinating book that I would recommend to anyone interested in high end food, fungus, truffles or anything getting imported.

3.5 stars, rounded up to 4 for the review.