We had breakfast with the first truffle grown in the Netherlands at RIJKS
It took almost seven years. But the first harvest of truffles grown in the Netherlands is now a fact. Chef Joris Bijdendijk of restaurant RIJKS had the honor and made a breakfast with the first Dutch truffle.
Judith Evenaar, nominated in 2018 for the Favorflav Food Top 100, started years ago with the bold plan for Truffelgaard, the Netherlands’ first truffle farm. The bioprocess biologist became fascinated by the mysterious fungi and began speaking with truffle experts to understand the process. The fact that truffles had previously been found in the Netherlands in the wild by scientists strengthened her belief that cultivating the precious truffle should also be possible in the Netherlands.
Harvest
Truffles are an unfathomable product. At Truffelgaard, hazelnut and oak trees have been planted together with the bianchetto truffle fungus. They are still small fungi, as became clear at the presentation of the first harvest at restaurant RIJKS. Bumpy in texture and brownish-gray in color, just as you would expect from truffles. Only 210 grams were found. Sniffed out by a Dutch truffle dog trained abroad, named Freddo. It is a truffle from the white truffle family, the bianchetto (Tuber Borchii), the less exclusive little sister of the famous and very expensive white truffle (the so-called Tuber Magnatum).
Velouté
Chef Bijdendijk is one of the co-founders of Low Food, a movement to put Dutch products on the culinary map. He prefers to cook with products from—literally—Dutch soil, such as traditional Boeren Leyden cheese, micro-brewed Tomasu Soy Sauce from Rotterdam and salt from Zeeland. And now you no longer have to go abroad for truffles either, or so the idea goes. Bijdendijk made three breakfast dishes with the special Dutch truffle: freshly shaved bianchetto truffle on a soft-boiled egg (classic!), truffle with a millefeuille of beetroot (delicious!) and—the hero of the three—a velouté generously enriched with bianchetto truffle butter. Fat and heat turn out to be the best buddy’s for bringing out the bianchetto’s aromas.
Verdict
The Dutch truffle, to be honest, does not (yet) have the intensity of varieties from the famous truffle regions of Italy and France. But this is only the first harvest. The entire process of growing truffles under Dutch conditions is still in its infancy and offers plenty of room for improvement, Evenaar acknowledges.
Black truffle
She has since also discovered black truffles in Limburg. This means that the soil and climate in the Netherlands are also suitable for growing a black summer truffle (Tuber uncinatum). Evenaar expects to be able to start a second truffle farm for black truffles this autumn.
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