The ‘food of the gods’ is now within everyone’s reach. But is there less to the new snacks than meets the eye?
It is the smell that hits you first: a heady slap of petroleum, garlic, funghi and warm earth after rainfall, followed by a whiff of peppery olive oil. Next comes a delicate crunch, and that distinctively deep, savoury flavour. This is what luxury tastes like; this, and a glass of dazzling toasty bubbles that taste like champagne but is really a £9 crémant from Sainsbury’s. Because I am not fine dining. I am not even dining. I am on the sofa, in my jimjams, watching Massimo Bottura on the Netflix series Chef’s Table and eating a snack that would see most Italian chefs of his calibre tear out their hair in disgust: truffle popcorn.
Handmade in London by “gourmet popcorn” brand Joe & Sephs, this is the latest in a growing number of “lowbrow” foods to use an ingredient that has more usually been confined to haute cuisine. Ten years ago, the flavour of truffle was an imagined treat: I had smelled it, at the truffle stall Tartufaia in London’s Borough Market, but never had the pleasure of eating it. In the past fortnight alone, I’ve had truffle-infused pizza, mashed potato, popcorn and macaroni cheese – and not just for the sake of this piece.
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