The Fish River Truffles Blog – 2025

Starting today and going until August

Can you believe it? Another truffle season is upon us. This marks the third year we launch the Fish River Truffles Blog - 2025. And what a journey it’s been! We continue to learn, explore, and share, and we genuinely hope you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoy creating it.

Each year around this time, we like to pause and reflect on why we started the blog in the first place. We revisit past posts to ensure we’re still aligned with our original goals and values.

Why We Started the Fish River Truffles Blog

So, what are those goals? It all began with frustration—frustration over how often we heard about disappointing truffle experiences. People were usually very polite, but they’d share stories of underwhelming dishes in restaurants, inconsistent quality from suppliers, or lacklustre results in their own kitchens.

We felt compelled to do something. And that’s how this blog was born.

When we reflect on our own experiences—especially in restaurants and other parts of the truffle world—we can completely understand why so many people end up disappointed. Sadly, it’s not surprising.

Australia’s truffle culture is still young—barely 25 years old—especially when compared to centuries-old traditions overseas. Many chefs here didn’t grow up with truffles, and few have had the opportunity to learn from masters who inherited knowledge passed down over generations. To make matters worse, there’s a real scarcity of high-quality information—both in Australia and globally. Most of what’s available focuses more on mystique and marketing than offering practical guidance to elevate the truffle experience.

Take something as fundamental as truffle aroma. A quick online search might tell you it’s “musky, nutty, or woody.” That’s it? That’s the full take on one of the most complex and emotionally evocative aromas in the culinary world?

This reminds me of something from my early psychology training. My supervisor asked me to memorise the diagnostic criteria for major mental illnesses. It felt hollow and frustrating. I didn’t have the words at the time to explain why—but I understand it now.

Have you seen the video of Nobel Prize–winning physicist Richard Feynman on names and knowledge? It captures this idea perfectly. Just knowing the name for something isn’t the same as truly understanding it. And truffle aroma is much more than a handful of descriptors or a chemical formula—it’s emotional, visceral, and at times, transformative.

I’ll never forget my first real truffle moment—it completely blew my mind. And every weekend during truffle season, I see that same moment reflected in the eyes of first-timers. If only I could bottle the joy, curiosity, and awe I witness when someone smells a fresh truffle for the first time.

Of course, diving deep into what I’ll call “truffle theory” risks losing a little of that magic. It’s a bit like dissecting a frog: you might learn more, but the frog doesn’t survive the process. And yet, it’s worth it. Just as memorising definitions didn’t teach me empathy, it was the deeper questioning—and the decision to understand why—that ultimately made me a better psychologist. (And I suspect that was exactly what my supervisor intended all along.)

Themes for the Fish River Truffle Blog 2025

Before we dive into this year’s themes, I want to introduce a helpful concept: what I’ll call areas of truffle knowledge.

When we look back at our blog’s evolution, most of our posts naturally fall into one of three broad categories. These are the building blocks of a more meaningful truffle experience:

• Truffles themselves – biology, harvesting, handling, and quality.

• Truffles in cooking – from traditional techniques to bold experimentation.

• The human experience of truffles – how our senses and brains shape perception and enjoyment.

The first two are fairly intuitive. It’s the third that may raise an eyebrow. Let me explain.

The Power of Perception

There once was a world-famous chef—some of you may already know who I’m referring to—renowned for his multi-sensory, boundary-pushing culinary style. Before serving a new dish publicly, he’d test it on his most loyal guests.

One evening, after careful adjustments, he presented a striking pinkish-red ice cream as the final course. The reaction was swift—and negative.

“That was disgusting,” one diner said.

“Way too salty,” added another.

What went wrong?

The problem was expectation. At the end of a meal, a pinkish-red ice cream strongly suggests a fruity dessert—most likely strawberry. But this wasn’t dessert. It was crab. A frozen crab bisque, to follow a crab risotto.

To the chef, the continuity made perfect sense. But for the diners, the shock of expecting sweet and receiving savoury created a jarring experience.

Professor Charles Spence head of the Crossmodal Research Group at Oxford University, later explained what happened that evening in Heston Blumenthal’s Fat Duck test kitchen:

"For most Westerners, pinkish-red in what looks like a frozen dessert is associated with a sweet fruity ice cream, probably strawberry flavour. ‘Sweet, fruity, I like it, but it isn’t so good for me’ – all that goes through a diner’s mind in the blink of an eye... However, on the rare occasions when our predictions turn out to be wrong, the surprise, or ‘disconfirmation of expectation’, can come as quite a shock. It can, in fact, be rather unpleasant... The diners in Heston’s restaurant presumably thought they were going to taste something sweet, but what was brought out from the kitchen was actually a savoury frozen ice. In other words, they were expecting strawberry and got frozen crab bisque instead!"

And that, in a nutshell, is why understanding the brain’s role in perception is essential to truly appreciating truffles. Our expectations shape our experiences—sometimes more than the food itself.

And this is just one example of how the brain interprets flavour and aroma. Then there’s the role of our senses—smell, sight, sound, taste, and touch—and how they interact to create the full sensory experience of food and truffles.

This will be one of the core themes of the blog this year.

What’s Ahead

Other topics we’ll explore include:

The nutritional value of truffles

An update on our tree experiment

And—yes—another look at that old chestnut: truffle oil

Now, I can already hear the groans: Not truffle oil again!

But bear with us—this time, it will be different, especially if you are a foodie looking to develop your 'truffle nose'.

One of our key focuses this year is not just sharing knowledge, but drawing clearer conclusions from what we’ve learned—and yes, we might get a bit more political than before.

Because sharing knowledge is one thing. Sparking action is another. And sometimes, action only happens when someone finally says what needs to be said.

Until Next Time

We hope you’ll join us on this year’s journey—one that digs deeper, asks bolder questions, and leaves you with more insight and joy each time you encounter a truffle.

If you enjoyed this week’s post, feel free to share it or tell a friend who loves food as much as you do. If you have any comments, we’d love to hear from you.

Until next week—when we’ll finally take on truffle oil, properly.

Ciao,

Carmine