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Truffle Boy: My Unexpected Journey Through the Exotic Food Underground
"[Ian Purkayastha] has a true, deep expertise in everything he sells--caviar, truffles, fish. He knows the stories that we need to sell the stuff tableside . . . he can disrupt the entire luxury foods market."
---From the Foreword by David Chang
Ian Purkayastha is New York City's leading truffle importer and boasts a devoted clientele of top chefs nationwide, including Jean-Georges Vongerichten, David Chang, Sean Brock, and David Bouley. But before he was purveying the world's most expensive fungus to the country's most esteemed chefs, Ian was just a food-obsessed teenager in rural Arkansas--a misfit with a peculiar fascination for rare and exotic ingredients.
The son of an Indian immigrant father and a Texan mother, Ian learned to forage for wild mushrooms from an uncle in the Ozark hills. Thus began a single-track fixation that led him to learn about the prized but elusive truffle, the king of all fungi. His first taste of truffle at age 15 sparked his improbable yet remarkable adventure through the strange--and often corrupt--business of the exotic food trade.
Rife with tales from the hidden underbelly of the elite restaurant scene, Truffle Boy chronicles Ian's high stakes dealings with a truffle kingpin in Serbia, meth-head foragers in Oregon, crooked businessmen and maniacal chefs in Manhattan, gypsy truffle hunters in the forests of Hungary, and a supreme adventure to find "Gucci mushrooms" in the Himalayan foothills--the land of the gods. He endures harsh failures along the way but rebuilds with tremendous success by selling not just truffles but also caviar, wild mushrooms, rare foraged edibles, Wagyu beef, and other nearly unobtainable ingredients demanded by his Michelin-starred clients.
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]-->Truffle Boy is a thrilling coming-of-age story and the incredible but true tale of a country kid who grows up to become a force in the world of fine dining.
---From the Foreword by David Chang
Ian Purkayastha is New York City's leading truffle importer and boasts a devoted clientele of top chefs nationwide, including Jean-Georges Vongerichten, David Chang, Sean Brock, and David Bouley. But before he was purveying the world's most expensive fungus to the country's most esteemed chefs, Ian was just a food-obsessed teenager in rural Arkansas--a misfit with a peculiar fascination for rare and exotic ingredients.
The son of an Indian immigrant father and a Texan mother, Ian learned to forage for wild mushrooms from an uncle in the Ozark hills. Thus began a single-track fixation that led him to learn about the prized but elusive truffle, the king of all fungi. His first taste of truffle at age 15 sparked his improbable yet remarkable adventure through the strange--and often corrupt--business of the exotic food trade.
Rife with tales from the hidden underbelly of the elite restaurant scene, Truffle Boy chronicles Ian's high stakes dealings with a truffle kingpin in Serbia, meth-head foragers in Oregon, crooked businessmen and maniacal chefs in Manhattan, gypsy truffle hunters in the forests of Hungary, and a supreme adventure to find "Gucci mushrooms" in the Himalayan foothills--the land of the gods. He endures harsh failures along the way but rebuilds with tremendous success by selling not just truffles but also caviar, wild mushrooms, rare foraged edibles, Wagyu beef, and other nearly unobtainable ingredients demanded by his Michelin-starred clients.
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]-->Truffle Boy is a thrilling coming-of-age story and the incredible but true tale of a country kid who grows up to become a force in the world of fine dining.
304 pages, Hardcover
Published February 7, 2017
25 people are currently reading
675 people want to read
About the author
Ian Purkayastha
1 book1 followerIan Purkayastha is the founder of Regalis Foods, an importer, distributor, and manufacturer of rare and exotic foods, based in New York City, Chicago, and Dallas. Regalis specializes in fresh truffles, caviar, uni, live exotic seafood, and wild foraged edibles. Regalis presently works with the vast majority of the Michelin-starred restaurant community in the United States, as well as operating a direct-to-consumer web platform: extending the same quality ingredients to curious consumers at home.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 61 reviews
January 20, 2020
More of a 3.5 star read, but rounding it up to 4.
My husband and I are both self-proclaimed foodies who love learning about the world of haute cuisine. We also both love mushrooms and truffles ... so, needless to say, this book was right up my alley. It was fascinating to follow Ian's journey from high school food enthusiast to NYC truffle import big shot - a climb he managed to accomplish in just a few short years. I was blown away by his entrepreneurial spirit and I learned a ton about truffles, olive oil, saffron, importing luxury food, running a niche business, foraging and the restaurant industry. The writing style was okay ... nothing spectacular, but it kept me engaged and interested throughout. Really, the wealth of insider information is what makes this worth reading.
I obviously enjoyed this book, but I'm not sure it would appeal to readers who aren't already interested in truffles and/or luxury foods. Much like the niche business he now runs, Ian's book caters to a very specific kind of reader. If that reader is you, you're in for a treat.
My husband and I are both self-proclaimed foodies who love learning about the world of haute cuisine. We also both love mushrooms and truffles ... so, needless to say, this book was right up my alley. It was fascinating to follow Ian's journey from high school food enthusiast to NYC truffle import big shot - a climb he managed to accomplish in just a few short years. I was blown away by his entrepreneurial spirit and I learned a ton about truffles, olive oil, saffron, importing luxury food, running a niche business, foraging and the restaurant industry. The writing style was okay ... nothing spectacular, but it kept me engaged and interested throughout. Really, the wealth of insider information is what makes this worth reading.
I obviously enjoyed this book, but I'm not sure it would appeal to readers who aren't already interested in truffles and/or luxury foods. Much like the niche business he now runs, Ian's book caters to a very specific kind of reader. If that reader is you, you're in for a treat.
January 16, 2019
It's interesting to read a memoir written by someone who is 23 because there was no real end, no resolution. And who should expect an ending when you're just at the beginning of adulthood? But it was amazing to see Purkayastha's entrepreneurial spirit and to see how much he's done already. And I love reading about food, and reading about hidden niche worlds that I had no idea existed, like the world of truffle mushrooms. It was fascinating to learn about what goes into being a restaurant distributor of high end products and the sordid world of truffle dealing. I wished there was more to this memoir, just because it was so interesting to me.
March 31, 2021
It is difficult to read about Purkayastha's repeated career missteps, but he clearly has a passion for his métier.
> People often think that mushrooms grow best in ancient virgin forests. The opposite is true. Mycorrhizal fungi including truffles are considered early successional species, which thrive in recently disturbed habitats. In the Pacific Northwest, the biggest disturbance for the past hundred years has been logging, and the clear-cuts are most often replanted with Douglas fir, a valuable species for lumber that is also a host for native truffles and other fungi. The result is that millions of acres in the Pacific Northwest are popping with truffles, chanterelles, matsutakes, porcini, hedgehog mushrooms, and other commercially important species. Unlike wild mushrooms, however, the native truffles weren’t esteemed.
> Europeans used dogs or pigs to hunt truffles because the animals can sniff out the ripe ones. Immature truffles lack scent. American truffle hunters just randomly raked forest floor to uncover every truffle they could find, ripe or not. As a result, most of the haul would be unripe, and so chefs thought that Oregon truffles were flavorless
> Most people have the mistaken idea that truffles are exclusively foraged from the wild. In fact, the black have been cultivated under oak trees for almost two hundred years in France, and since the 1970s the French have also raised black truffles on hazelnut trees, sometimes called filberts, a species that matures faster than oaks
> Based on what I was seeing, Ubaldo must have sourced half his white truffles from Hungary. My stomach cramped as I understood Ubaldo’s secret. He had fooled me into thinking I was selling Italian white truffles, and I had unknowingly swindled my clients by telling them the same thing
> The main culinary difference between white and black truffle is that the latter can be cooked without killing its flavor, which is why black truffles can also be canned and used to flavor preserved products like pâté.
> The last time my parents went to India, a month-long voyage to source ingredients and furniture for Khana, they had bought me a shirt. I remember receiving it in the mail and inhaling the exact smell that now surrounded us in the Delhi night.
> Tuber magnatum (pico), the European winter white truffle, is often considered the supreme truffle. This wild species has never been successfully cultivated, which is part of the reason its cost can run to a whopping $5,000 per pound retail, making it the most expensive (legal) food in the world. White truffles are often called Italian truffles or Alba truffles, after a town in northern Italy, but in fact their range spreads into Eastern Europe and the Balkan Peninsula
> Tuber indicum, the Chinese truffle. The scourge of the truffle industry, because it’s virtually indistinguishable from T. melanosporum but lacks all aroma. Chinese truffles are imported to Europe to “cut” shipments of melanosporum, the way drug dealers cut pure cocaine with baking soda. The most deceptive “counterfeit” black truffle.
> People often think that mushrooms grow best in ancient virgin forests. The opposite is true. Mycorrhizal fungi including truffles are considered early successional species, which thrive in recently disturbed habitats. In the Pacific Northwest, the biggest disturbance for the past hundred years has been logging, and the clear-cuts are most often replanted with Douglas fir, a valuable species for lumber that is also a host for native truffles and other fungi. The result is that millions of acres in the Pacific Northwest are popping with truffles, chanterelles, matsutakes, porcini, hedgehog mushrooms, and other commercially important species. Unlike wild mushrooms, however, the native truffles weren’t esteemed.
> Europeans used dogs or pigs to hunt truffles because the animals can sniff out the ripe ones. Immature truffles lack scent. American truffle hunters just randomly raked forest floor to uncover every truffle they could find, ripe or not. As a result, most of the haul would be unripe, and so chefs thought that Oregon truffles were flavorless
> Most people have the mistaken idea that truffles are exclusively foraged from the wild. In fact, the black have been cultivated under oak trees for almost two hundred years in France, and since the 1970s the French have also raised black truffles on hazelnut trees, sometimes called filberts, a species that matures faster than oaks
> Based on what I was seeing, Ubaldo must have sourced half his white truffles from Hungary. My stomach cramped as I understood Ubaldo’s secret. He had fooled me into thinking I was selling Italian white truffles, and I had unknowingly swindled my clients by telling them the same thing
> The main culinary difference between white and black truffle is that the latter can be cooked without killing its flavor, which is why black truffles can also be canned and used to flavor preserved products like pâté.
> The last time my parents went to India, a month-long voyage to source ingredients and furniture for Khana, they had bought me a shirt. I remember receiving it in the mail and inhaling the exact smell that now surrounded us in the Delhi night.
> Tuber magnatum (pico), the European winter white truffle, is often considered the supreme truffle. This wild species has never been successfully cultivated, which is part of the reason its cost can run to a whopping $5,000 per pound retail, making it the most expensive (legal) food in the world. White truffles are often called Italian truffles or Alba truffles, after a town in northern Italy, but in fact their range spreads into Eastern Europe and the Balkan Peninsula
> Tuber indicum, the Chinese truffle. The scourge of the truffle industry, because it’s virtually indistinguishable from T. melanosporum but lacks all aroma. Chinese truffles are imported to Europe to “cut” shipments of melanosporum, the way drug dealers cut pure cocaine with baking soda. The most deceptive “counterfeit” black truffle.
dnf
January 25, 2022Can't really get into it (maybe bec I hate mushrooms?) and the author feels very young - he's only 23. I'm not interested enough in exotic/expensive food commodities to continue.
July 29, 2024
Pretty solid for what it is. Truffle Boy by Ian Purkayastha is a story about his entrepreneurial journey from a very young age. This one will be interesting for people who love truffles and educational for everyone new to the business, just like I am. One chapter is dedicated to Serbia, as we have high-quality truffles here, and that is a biiiig plus!
November 7, 2017
I struggled with my rating on this one. It's truly fascinating to see how a young guy, who is still a young guy even at this point in his career, goes from high school student to importer of specialty foods in a short matter of years. The book includes an incredible wealth of information about truffles, foraged foods, and the New York restaurant industry. And the author's experiences, the rises and falls of business, are pretty honest. However I struggled sometimes with his Meandering story style, the presumptions of Youth that sometimes grated, and his forays into flowery language that felt out of place. Still, if you're interested in the New York food industry, or if you're the type of person who likes to learn about specialty foods and the worlds of chefs and restauranteurs, this is a fascinating read.
September 16, 2018
The first half of the book was really good and I zipped right through it. Then it got bogged down into scientific details of why and how truffles and mushrooms grow and I got bored and moved to another book. I just finished it this morning after picking it up again and while it was entertaining and Ian has a story to tell, it wasn't something I would highly recommend. But he is pretty impressive in what he started when he was just a kid. At 17, starting a global truffle business all because of a truffle pasta meal was most definitely not on my mind. Most likely for me it would have involved Bali Hai or Ripple wine punches.
October 11, 2018
I remained much more interested in this book than I thought I might: I mean, a book about mushrooms? Truffles? Exotic foods? A geeky boy with learning challenges? However, this boy partially grew up in Fayetteville, AR, and his parents own a lovely Indian restaurant here...he went to school where 2 of my children did...he organized a Gourmet Food Club at Fayetteville High school, and began his career as a 16 year old, researching, finding, selling, truffles, all over the world, and now owns, at 23, Regalis, and sells to fabulous restaurants as well as places like Williams and Sonoma. it's an interesting story - and more power to you, Ian!
September 6, 2017
I found this book at work and instantly was interested in it. I love the food world and culture and learning about expensive ingredients and what makes them expensive and popular. The first 150 pages had me interested and learned how scummy the world of truffles could be. But after that, he seemed to have repeated the same information and the chapters just seemed to drag on and on as you didn't learn anything new. Definitely a cool start, but I found I was forcing myself to finish it at the end.
February 9, 2017
Fascinating book about foraging for truffles and mushrooms and exploring all sorts of other edibles from all over the world. This reads like part memoir, part research project and part travelogue. Interesting business he has built and the challenges along the way. Hard to believe this man has fit so much into his life at this young age. Fun to read and quite a story!
January 1, 2020
He has an interesting story to tell, despite being so young.
March 21, 2017
Interesting read, I learned A LOT about truffles. Dragged a bit towards the end. It's basically a Foodie Adventure travel book.
November 30, 2017
Ian Purkayastha grew up in Texas with an Indian father and Texas mother. Some of his best childhood memories involved cooking and eating with his Texas grandparents and extended family. He learned about foraging for wild food from his uncle Jared. While researching wild foods Ian learns about truffles and is determined to try them. He saves up his money to buy some from Italy and is soon importing truffles and selling them to local high-end restaurants in Dallas and Austin, Texas - all while still in high school! After finishing high school he defers college to work for a truffle distributor in New York and within a few years has started his own company, Regalis, that imports truffles and other wild edibles for some of the most exclusive restaurants in the world. Ian is meticulous in making sure that all the food he sells is sourced locally and sustainably to keep his reputation spotless. At only 22 it might seem pretentious for Ian to write a memoir, but he has accomplished more by 22 than many people have after decades. A very unique memoir about the wild edible food world and one man who is building his food empire.
A quote I really liked:
[Ian bonded with his uncle Jared over their shared struggles with learning disabilities. Jared also taught Ian about foraging and wild food] "Like me, [Jared] had struggled through school, the situation made worse by his undiagnosed learning disabilities. Instead he watched Grizzly Adams, read Stalking the Wild Asparagus by wild-food expert Euell Gibbons, and devoured the Foxfire books, a 1970s series that documented Appalachian craft skills and folklore. (He built a functional still out of Foxfire for a high school science project.)" p. 38
A quote I really liked:
[Ian bonded with his uncle Jared over their shared struggles with learning disabilities. Jared also taught Ian about foraging and wild food] "Like me, [Jared] had struggled through school, the situation made worse by his undiagnosed learning disabilities. Instead he watched Grizzly Adams, read Stalking the Wild Asparagus by wild-food expert Euell Gibbons, and devoured the Foxfire books, a 1970s series that documented Appalachian craft skills and folklore. (He built a functional still out of Foxfire for a high school science project.)" p. 38
February 26, 2022
At the early age of 23, Purkayastha provides an autobiography describing the development of an interest in foods in his youth, leading to the formation of a business to supply truffles to the North American market - Regalis Foods. Suffering many setbacks along the way, he perseveres leading to success in the end.
Purkayastha's intention was to become a very honest and reliable supplier, differentiating himself from others in an industry where poor quality and miss-representation are common. In the end, this approach becomes the key to winning over a customer base among the notoriously fussy chefs. Becoming a full service supplier, he diversifies with a variety of other wild foods.
In order to control his margin and to ensure the quality of his products, he develops relationships with those harvesting truffles. He describes his trips to France, Italy, Spain and Serbia to meet the suppliers and establish the supply.
His main products are the three main truffle species: the Summer Truffle (Tuber aestivum), the Black Truffle (Tuber melanosporum) and the White Truffle (Tuber magnatum), the "ultimate" truffle. He also describes the Chinese truffle (Tuber indicum) which is widely available and looks very much like the Black Truffle but almost completely lacks any aroma. However, it is widely sold as Black Truffle and even more frequently used in truffle products - the binomial name is often on the label, the supplier depending on the customer not knowing the binomials names.
The author has a great interest in food and his descriptions of various dishes are enticing.
A very engaging read with much of interest in cuisine.
Purkayastha's intention was to become a very honest and reliable supplier, differentiating himself from others in an industry where poor quality and miss-representation are common. In the end, this approach becomes the key to winning over a customer base among the notoriously fussy chefs. Becoming a full service supplier, he diversifies with a variety of other wild foods.
In order to control his margin and to ensure the quality of his products, he develops relationships with those harvesting truffles. He describes his trips to France, Italy, Spain and Serbia to meet the suppliers and establish the supply.
His main products are the three main truffle species: the Summer Truffle (Tuber aestivum), the Black Truffle (Tuber melanosporum) and the White Truffle (Tuber magnatum), the "ultimate" truffle. He also describes the Chinese truffle (Tuber indicum) which is widely available and looks very much like the Black Truffle but almost completely lacks any aroma. However, it is widely sold as Black Truffle and even more frequently used in truffle products - the binomial name is often on the label, the supplier depending on the customer not knowing the binomials names.
The author has a great interest in food and his descriptions of various dishes are enticing.
A very engaging read with much of interest in cuisine.
April 5, 2017
This was a highly engaging book, grips you from the get go. The tone is tongue-in-cheek and witty with a healthy dose of self promotion. Some of the examples / metaphors used are awesome. They are vivid; you can really feel the descriptions of Ian's food adventures and places he visits.
My biggest criticism is that I was left wondering how much of the writing actually belonged to Ian versus the second author listed, Kevin West. The writing was so sharp, so on point with its depth of description, that it made me question how much was ghostwritten. This becomes an issue because you want to feel like you know Ian through the book, that you have an idea of who he is and his personality through what it seems like he is authoring. If it's actually a ghostwriter talking though, it loses much of its magic for me.
Now, Ian could have written almost all of it. If that's the case, my serious commendations. Along with being a class-A truffle hustler he is an exceptional writer at a young age. More than anything I think I would just like his weigh in and a real read-through to how much of "his" voice in the book was written or directly contributed by him.
My biggest criticism is that I was left wondering how much of the writing actually belonged to Ian versus the second author listed, Kevin West. The writing was so sharp, so on point with its depth of description, that it made me question how much was ghostwritten. This becomes an issue because you want to feel like you know Ian through the book, that you have an idea of who he is and his personality through what it seems like he is authoring. If it's actually a ghostwriter talking though, it loses much of its magic for me.
Now, Ian could have written almost all of it. If that's the case, my serious commendations. Along with being a class-A truffle hustler he is an exceptional writer at a young age. More than anything I think I would just like his weigh in and a real read-through to how much of "his" voice in the book was written or directly contributed by him.
June 15, 2017
This makes an interesting read about a geeky kid from Oklahoma who discovers an unusual passion: truffles. While still in his teens, the author moves to New York City and starts an (ultimately) successful exotic and luxury food import business.
Purkayastha relates the story of his mugging during his early days in Brooklyn (the wheeled cooler he uses to peddle truffles to chefs at high-end Manhattan restaurants bears a resemblance to those used by drug dealers for their product - his muggers are NOT pleased to find it full of mushrooms), several bad business deals, and his blossoming romance, both with food and with a woman.
Although the author's youth is apparent, both in his attitudes and his frequent naïveté, he keeps learning, and persists at what he knows and does best. An entertaining and inspiring read.
Purkayastha relates the story of his mugging during his early days in Brooklyn (the wheeled cooler he uses to peddle truffles to chefs at high-end Manhattan restaurants bears a resemblance to those used by drug dealers for their product - his muggers are NOT pleased to find it full of mushrooms), several bad business deals, and his blossoming romance, both with food and with a woman.
Although the author's youth is apparent, both in his attitudes and his frequent naïveté, he keeps learning, and persists at what he knows and does best. An entertaining and inspiring read.
May 21, 2021
I have completed over half of this book, as is usually my goal when I can't decide if I'm really into something or not (anything I throw the towel in earlier than that gets shelved as "abandoned"). Ian Purkayastha is going to have a lot to say one day. However, at 23, it's just a lot of complaining, he-said she-said, play by play, whoops I got taken advantage of again. The first few chapters were interesting, but it kind of went downhill. Like I said, give him a few decades and he might mature and become a good writer.
May 4, 2017
The author lightly details childhood growing up in a multicultural family, and his rejection at school until a near-superpower develops: gourmet cooking. Later on, he focuses on mushrooms, and details the truffle business across several countries.
Truffle Boy melds mycology with the narrative in a delightfully approachable manner. Many memoirs are whiny and self-absorbed. This one is not.
Truffle Boy melds mycology with the narrative in a delightfully approachable manner. Many memoirs are whiny and self-absorbed. This one is not.
July 8, 2017
How many 16 year olds do you know who visit nation wide food festivals and cook large event meals for their classmates because they love exotic foods? Well that is where Ian comes in and changes everything, this is a teen who knows how to source high quality foods from around the country to bring together some of the best meals around.
The reason I picked up this book was simple, here was a teen who started his own exotic foods company and began when he was in high school. He put off college for the hard knocks of life learning of running your own business in the dog eat dog world of New York City. Any parent would work very hard to convince their child they needed to go to college but Ian's parents saw his passion for exotic foods, especially truffles.
This story reads like the sole entrepreneur that so many people wish they could take on. Ian runs into trouble after trouble and learning the hard truths about life - cold calling, getting beat up, and dealing with not so truthful bosses. Everything you want to know about starting a business on your own and working in the world of exotic foods is all packed within these pages. Ian takes you on an adventure of going door to door of the best restaurants in NYC and getting the door slammed in his face until he learns exactly how to approach each chef.
His life growing up taught him how to pick high quality foods and because of that skill, he learns how to source the best truffles in the world from various suppliers. How many teens do you know who are independent and self-motivated enough to do all that in a strange new city hundreds of miles from home? There are too many helicopter parents who squash those dreams.
That is why I liked this book because it shows that parents need to let their kids be who they want to be if they know exactly what they want to do in life. Ian demonstrated such independent thinking that he was already connected to some of the best food suppliers in the country that all he had to do was find the best restaurants out there with the demand. He would spend hours on the phone calling and calling trying to get orders made.
Then he would drive into NYC and take his ice chest full of exotic foods from restaurant to restaurant with a simple sales pitch, "I have the best truffles in the world" knowing that all he had to do was show the top chefs his picks and they would fall in love.
Read this book is you love learning about exotic foods and how they are found and distributed around the world. This book will teach you so much about the truffle industry that you will wish you could go and experience each one mentioned in this book. Ian goes on many travels around the world in search of the best with the hopes of getting that exclusive deal set in paper. That is the secret to working in the exotic foods business, if you want the best you need to get suppliers to do exclusive deals otherwise anyone can buy from them and it makes your product less glamorous.
I would highly recommend this book to any ambitious high school kid who needs a little motivation and direction of how they can use their talents and skills and turn all that into a full business. It is truly a great story to read.
The reason I picked up this book was simple, here was a teen who started his own exotic foods company and began when he was in high school. He put off college for the hard knocks of life learning of running your own business in the dog eat dog world of New York City. Any parent would work very hard to convince their child they needed to go to college but Ian's parents saw his passion for exotic foods, especially truffles.
This story reads like the sole entrepreneur that so many people wish they could take on. Ian runs into trouble after trouble and learning the hard truths about life - cold calling, getting beat up, and dealing with not so truthful bosses. Everything you want to know about starting a business on your own and working in the world of exotic foods is all packed within these pages. Ian takes you on an adventure of going door to door of the best restaurants in NYC and getting the door slammed in his face until he learns exactly how to approach each chef.
His life growing up taught him how to pick high quality foods and because of that skill, he learns how to source the best truffles in the world from various suppliers. How many teens do you know who are independent and self-motivated enough to do all that in a strange new city hundreds of miles from home? There are too many helicopter parents who squash those dreams.
That is why I liked this book because it shows that parents need to let their kids be who they want to be if they know exactly what they want to do in life. Ian demonstrated such independent thinking that he was already connected to some of the best food suppliers in the country that all he had to do was find the best restaurants out there with the demand. He would spend hours on the phone calling and calling trying to get orders made.
Then he would drive into NYC and take his ice chest full of exotic foods from restaurant to restaurant with a simple sales pitch, "I have the best truffles in the world" knowing that all he had to do was show the top chefs his picks and they would fall in love.
Read this book is you love learning about exotic foods and how they are found and distributed around the world. This book will teach you so much about the truffle industry that you will wish you could go and experience each one mentioned in this book. Ian goes on many travels around the world in search of the best with the hopes of getting that exclusive deal set in paper. That is the secret to working in the exotic foods business, if you want the best you need to get suppliers to do exclusive deals otherwise anyone can buy from them and it makes your product less glamorous.
I would highly recommend this book to any ambitious high school kid who needs a little motivation and direction of how they can use their talents and skills and turn all that into a full business. It is truly a great story to read.
November 2, 2023
Can't remember where I heard of this book, but I was intrigued by the idea of reading about how a distributer of exotic food like truffles got his business off the ground and became such a mainstay of elite restaurants in New York City while still in his early twenties.
I'm not sure what I expected from this book, but it didn't hold my interest as much as I thought it would. Aside from the author's experiences doing stuff like trying to sell truffles to various high-end restaurants, there was a lot of description about the author's childhood, which felt a bit mundane since I didn't actually know the author at all prior to picking up this book and nothing about it felt especially intriguing. It was like listening to someone you don't know describe their childhood.
From reading other reviews, it sounds like descriptions of various hard-to-get foods (how they're collected, what makes them so prized, etc.) would come later in the book, but I didn't make it that far, since I lost interest in this somewhere along the way. I'm rating it 3 stars because there was nothing specifically wrong with this book, but there also wasn't enough of a compelling story for me to continue.
I'm not sure what I expected from this book, but it didn't hold my interest as much as I thought it would. Aside from the author's experiences doing stuff like trying to sell truffles to various high-end restaurants, there was a lot of description about the author's childhood, which felt a bit mundane since I didn't actually know the author at all prior to picking up this book and nothing about it felt especially intriguing. It was like listening to someone you don't know describe their childhood.
From reading other reviews, it sounds like descriptions of various hard-to-get foods (how they're collected, what makes them so prized, etc.) would come later in the book, but I didn't make it that far, since I lost interest in this somewhere along the way. I'm rating it 3 stars because there was nothing specifically wrong with this book, but there also wasn't enough of a compelling story for me to continue.
June 30, 2019
i picked this randomly off the library shelf, and i'm so glad i did! this was so much fun to read, and i learnt a huge amount - about truffles (different types and how to cook them), the truffle industry (main players, the supply chain, dirty laundry), a bit about the wider luxury foods & restaurant industries (super interesting to understand how the foods i eat at these restaurants are sourced!), and a lot about entrepreneurship from his personal journey. the first 2/3 of the book was my favorite. i loved learning about his childhood, his creativity and passion for food and starting/running different enterprises (whether it was a school club or his own company). while his adventures through different mushroom lands were informative (which is what the last 1/3 of the book focused on), it was much more boring for me because it was so concentrated upon truffle specifics. he is so impressive, and this was just fascinating.
August 15, 2023
this memoir explores ian’s journey towards becoming one of the best luxury food dealers in the country. he travels with you through his foodie story from an exotic food club in grade school to building his own company as a young adult. ian shares the highs and lows of building his brand, pivotal moments in his journey, and plenty of mushroom knowledge and recipe ideas.
not gonna lie, i didn’t love it. i still do love mushrooms and lagottos though. it felt a bit like a biology textbook at times and very repetitive at others. i am very impressed with ian’s journey and it is inspiring to see how he built his career but i think i would’ve preferred his story in podcast form. learned about my favorite flavor ever though which is good i guess. probably wouldn’t recommend.
not gonna lie, i didn’t love it. i still do love mushrooms and lagottos though. it felt a bit like a biology textbook at times and very repetitive at others. i am very impressed with ian’s journey and it is inspiring to see how he built his career but i think i would’ve preferred his story in podcast form. learned about my favorite flavor ever though which is good i guess. probably wouldn’t recommend.
April 27, 2022
Picked this one up months ago, set it down for a while, picked it back up after finishing another book. It's earnestly written and contains some deep food knowledge, some evocatively written sensory passages about cooking and eating and some interesting travelogue-y bits, but it's also filled with every single detail of the luxury foods industry, opening and closing various businesses, behind-the-scenes dramas about wealthy people and their money... just Way More Information Than You Require. Would love to have read a New Yorker-style profile of Ian, like, just the interesting parts of this book.
July 21, 2019
I’m not a foodie, but occasionally I enjoy a “foodie book”. If you miss Bourdain, check this guy out. Yes, he’s written a memoir and he’s in his mid-twenties, but what he’s done so far is pretty damn unique, and definitely qualifies as an American Dream story, as well having elements of a business book and a travel narrative, managing to take me back to my hectic days of recruiting students in India. Recommended. Great narrator as well, if you are into audio books.
September 11, 2019
Ian pulls no punches, about his own naivete' and trashing some of those people who took advantage of him. This is an account of someone who didn't quite fit in, in several schools - but forged an identity and friendships based on his passion and knowledge of cooking and foraging.
I enjoyed the interesting story of his family, his early life, and his interest and finally his mastery of the best truffles in the world.
In his mid-twenties, he has accomplished a lot.
I enjoyed the interesting story of his family, his early life, and his interest and finally his mastery of the best truffles in the world.
In his mid-twenties, he has accomplished a lot.
February 8, 2018
This book was good company on my commute to work and I was impressed by the entrepreneurial spirit and depth of knowledge the author learns and allows him to succeed in his business. I found his attitude of superiority over nearly everyone he's ever worked with to be grating but it was interesting to hear about the business of high end mushrooms and other foraged foods.
March 8, 2018
I'm sure if you are a foodie this would be a fabulous read. I am not much of a foodie, in that if it goes down and fills my tummy, it's good. I was a little bored with the ongoing discussion of great eats and great restaurants. Yet a completely awesome read for those who love to taste, create and read about food.
April 28, 2022
I'd put this at 3.5 stars, but rounded up to 4.
I enjoyed reading about Ian's life as a young businessman and the lessons he learned in starting a truffle business as a teen. All of the truffle facts and the general business practices were just as fascinating as Ian's story. I'll be interested in following his career in the food industry.
I enjoyed reading about Ian's life as a young businessman and the lessons he learned in starting a truffle business as a teen. All of the truffle facts and the general business practices were just as fascinating as Ian's story. I'll be interested in following his career in the food industry.
July 2, 2017
Quite well written. Educational about all foodie obsessions. An inspiring story to teach me that I need to stay focused on my goals and to have passion. Congratulations to Ian on a pretty amazing business.
February 6, 2024
Another book that I didn’t really feel like reading that turned out to be fantastic. I enjoyed the story, I found nostalgia in the parts about the city at that time and there were interesting points about the truffle industry as a whole.
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