Truffle Hunting with Urbani Truffles

A Celebration of White Truffle Season

Words by Olivia White

Image by Evan Sung

White truffle season is an incredible time of year, and it’s almost time to savor the ingredient once more. This year, we are thrilled to celebrate the season with a one-night-only white truffle dinner hosted in collaboration with our long-time partner, Urbani Truffles. On October 29, 2026, we will be serving a special menu centered around this rare and incredibly flavorful ingredient.  

For us, nothing is more sacred than ensuring we are working with quality ingredients. And at Urbani, diligence and care when hunting, selecting, and transporting truffles are of the utmost importance. It’s for that very reason why we work closely with Urbani to select the best white and black truffles possible to use on our menu.  

The Family Legacy

Established by Costantino Urbani in Umbria, Italy in 1852, Urbani Truffles is currently operated by the fifth and sixth generation of the Urbani family. With each generation, invaluable information has been passed down, allowing the company to become the world‘s most venerable supplier of truffles. And continuing with family tradition in the truffle business doesn’t end with the Urbanis.  

To source the prized ingredient, Urbani works with a network of over 18,000 hunters, cleaners, and transporters across Italy to deliver the freshest fungi possible. A great deal of their truffle hunters — the majority of whom are men searching in regions like Piedmont, Tuscany, Emilia Romagna, Marche, and Molise — were trained to do the job by their fathers. And their father was trained by his father.  

It’s a similar situation for Urbani’s truffle cleaners, most of whom are women. These women were taught how to properly select and delicately clean the strongest specimens by their mothers, who themselves learned from their mothers.  

“It’s a process that you can’t learn from books,” says Vittorio Urbani, Vice President of Urbani Truffles USA. “You just learn by doing it, and who better to learn from than your family?” 

Image Courtesy of Urbani Truffles

The Midnight Hunt

As Vittorio explains, the process of locating truffles typically begins at night. Under the cover of darkness, hunters head out with two or three dogs in tow, sneaking through the woods so no prying eyes can discover their secret scouting spots. The time of day also helps minimize noise — which often distracts the dogs from their job — and temperature, which, when too high, makes the labor-intensive process more exhausting than necessary.  

Once the hunters’ spots are secure, they set their dogs loose through the woods to identify the signature scent, which they are trained to pick up as puppies using slices of discarded truffle. Following closely behind is their owner, who gently guides the dog away once they identify a specimen and slowly begins digging as to not scratch the truffle.  

In a single excursion, Vittorio says that hunters will typically find only one piece of truffle, two maybe, if it’s an abundant day. The low yields are why Urbani’s network is so vast. Without the thousands of hunters, the company wouldn’t be able to fulfill demand.

Time Is Of The Essence

Once harvested, the bounty is transported to one of Urbani’s facilities, typically arriving by around 2:00 in the afternoon. There, white truffles are cleaned with exceptional care. As they cannot be washed, lest they turn mushy, the team of experts delicately brushes any dirt or residue off before the truffles are transported to the airport. Then, the fungi board a flight in a refrigerated box, arriving in New York by around 5:00pm.  

“In the case of a delayed flight or if there is a mechanical problem at the airport, we have a specialized broker that takes the goods and moves them to a different airline,” Vittorio explains. “That way, we can guarantee the product arrives in the United States in time for it to be served fresh.”  

Even after touching down in the U.S., there are still several barriers to entry white truffles face before they arrive in our kitchen. Each piece undergoes a second quality control process, where they are evaluated on firmness, aroma, and more to ensure only the best of the best are passed on. By the time they do make it into our restaurant, they had been in the ground just 36 hours earlier, maximum.  

Image by Evan Sung

Selecting Only The Best

To learn more about the truffles our culinary team desires most, Vittorio worked closely with our Chef de Cuisine, Culinary Director, and Director of Research and Development who sorted through dozens of pounds of truffles to pick out the exact kind they would like to work with. Ideally, these white truffles are roughly the size of a golf ball, which allows us to provide the best aroma and flavor for our guests. Of the approximately 100 pounds of truffle Urbani receives on a weekly basis, only about 10 percent will be up to our strict standards.  

“Eleven Madison Park gets first pick of our truffles because you are looking for such a specific product,” Vittorio says. “But I memorized what you wanted and showed my team. Now, every time we select a product for you, we have a parameter and a standard to follow.”  

Much like the work of the truffle hunters and cleaners, it’s a level of care that simply can’t be taught in a book.

Book Your Tickets to Our White Truffle Dinner 

Experience the magic of Urbani Truffles when you join us on October 29. Tickets are available via Resy.