Truffle season shocks chefs as prices double to US$3,200 a pound

New York

DURING a bumper year for Italian white truffles, one of fine dining's most precious (read: expensive) ingredients, San Francisco chef Michael Tusk can get practically profligate with the aromatic mushrooms. He'll even use them to top pizza.

"This is probably not a year for that," says the chef and co-owner of Cotogna and the three-Michelin-starred Quince.

"Prices have doubled," says Vittorio Giordano, vice president of Urbani Truffles, a major importer.

Each autunm, truffle aficionados around the globe pay dearly to have the lumpen tubers shaved atop risotto, scattered on pasta, and draped onto s…