Tajarin al Tartufo Bianco d’Alba. Credit: Lucciola NYC

The House That Truffles Built

15 Minute read

20 Nov 2025

Ari Bendersky

Writer

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For 75 years, the Montanaro family has shaped the global trade in Alba white truffles, blending tradition, innovation, and deep ties to the land.

In the culinary world, few ingredients command the reverence of white truffles from Alba. Like Osetra caviar or A5 wagyu, these precious fungi from Piemonte in northwestern Italy are hunted by trained dogs with acute noses that can pinpoint them deep beneath the forest floor. Once unearthed, they must be cleaned, weighed, and rushed to their destinations. Their perishability means restaurants receive them almost immediately by hand or via overnight shipping during the short October-through-December white truffle season.

Alba white truffles can cost thousands of dollars per pound, and restaurants around the world compete for the finest specimens to feature in tasting menus and special dishes. Deep-pocketed diners and those seeking once-in-a-lifetime experiences watch as servers shave the delicate truffles over creamy carbonara tagliatelle, perfectly cooked wagyu, and even ultra-fresh ahi tuna at high-end sushi restaurants.

While hundreds of hunters work with their trusted canines across the Alba region, only a small number of companies have earned the reputation to supply these treasures to the world’s top kitchens. Among them, one family-owned business stands apart, a company that built its legacy over 75 years, starting humbly in the back of a Michelin-recognized restaurant.

From Restaurant Kitchen to Global Truffle House

The Tartuflanghe story begins in 1950, when Giuseppe “Beppe” Montanaro started his culinary career in the Langhe hills. In 1968, he and his wife, Domenica Bertolusso, opened Da Beppe in downtown Alba, a restaurant that quickly earned Michelin recognition for its menu centered on mushrooms and truffles. While Beppe worked in the kitchen, Domenica visited the wives of truffle hunters to procure the precious mushrooms. At the time, truffles, also called tuber magnatum, were more abundant and prices hadn’t yet reached astronomical heights.

Back then, it wasn’t uncommon for the restaurant to go through 18 pounds of truffles in a weekend, according to Paolo Montanaro, Beppe and Domenica’s son, who now runs the company with his sister, Stefania, and his wife, Veronica Giraudo, the company’s export manager. Today, by contrast, a restaurant might go through four.

By 1975, the couple had built such strong relationships with local hunters that they founded Tartuflanghe to select, process, and export Alba truffles worldwide.

The Montanaros began by creating truffle cream and paté in a small lab behind their house. In 1988, Domenica asked the local chamber of commerce how to expand their reach. The answer was exhibitions. At the 1992 Fancy Food Show in New York, Tartuflanghe introduced Tartufissima N.19, the world’s first truffle pasta, and won the award for best new product. That innovation changed everything.

“To me it is an iconic product,” Paolo Montanaro said. “All you need is butter and Parmigiano to create an amazing dish.”

That first innovation has led to dozens more. Today, the 70,000-square-foot headquarters in Piobesi d’Alba, about 10 minutes from Alba, bustles with activity. Groups of businesspeople arrive throughout the day to tour the facilities. Tourists with cameras roam the retail space to shop the wide selection of truffle-infused products, from chips and sauces to tartufi dolci d’Alba, the chocolate and Piedmont hazelnut PGI pralines. Many schedule an intimate sit-down tasting or a hands-on truffle hunt with the dogs.

Behind the scenes, the buzz continues as employees pack the award-winning truffle pasta, ship orders around the world, and clean black and white truffles mostly by hand. Tartuflanghe now produces 140 products shipped to 60 countries, and they show no signs of slowing as Paolo, something of a mad scientist, continues to invent and innovate. Chefs, from those with Michelin stars to those cooking in neighborhood bistros, clamor for these prized truffles, whether fresh, freeze-dried, or in Truffle Perlage, a spherified truffle caviar made from black winter truffle juice. Some chefs work with Paolo to create private-label products, while most simply incorporate the truffles into their dishes.

Trusted by Chefs Around the World

For Mattia Moliterni, managing partner of Roscioli NYC, sourcing truffles directly from Alba isn’t just a preference, it’s a principle.

“In Italy, so many products are protected by DOP and DOCG designations,” Moliterni said. “If you want to make Barolo wine, you must use grapes from Barolo and make the wine in one of the allowed villages. But with truffles, you can buy them from a company in central Italy that purchases from Alba. It makes sense to buy white truffles from the village where they actually come from.”

Moliterni has worked with Tartuflanghe for five years at Roscioli’s Rome location and now exclusively uses their truffles at Roscioli’s New York outpost, which opened in 2023. In late November and early December, Roscioli will host a four-night truffle menu takeover in New York. The $195 four-course dinner will feature both white and black truffles in dishes such as supplì with fontina and white truffles, roasted veal with Barolo and black truffles, and stracciatella gelato with white truffles.

“They have an impressive network of truffle hunters who have worked with them for generations,” he said. “Paolo’s father started these relationships. They know the guys. When the season starts, they get first access to the best truffles.”

The freshness factor proves critical. Truffles are 85 percent water and extremely perishable, lasting only one to two weeks at most.
“With truffles, time is very sensitive,” Moliterni said. “As soon as they’re picked, Tartuflanghe handles all the logistics. You get them overnight, super fresh, and can use them for the whole week.”

At Tartuflanghe’s headquarters, white truffles are washed exclusively by hand with soft brushes. This painstaking process preserves their delicate aromatics.

“Truffles are a kind of natural magic,” Paolo said. “They offer a unique sensory experience, and their unpredictability makes them challenging yet incredibly exciting.”

Even the dirt collected after cleaning is returned to the land, rich with truffle spores that help regenerate the forests. The company also practices direct spore injection into tree roots across its sustainable truffle grounds in the Langhe, Roero, and Monferrato regions of Piemonte. These efforts help preserve both the land and the tradition.

“Looking ahead, the greatest challenge will be the availability of the product itself and the protection of our natural habitat,” Paolo said. “Preserving forests and the woodland heritage of Piedmont is becoming essential, and that is where we are making our most significant investments.”

Innovation Meets Tradition

While Tartuflanghe’s reputation leads with fresh truffles, the company has also pioneered preservation techniques that extend the magic of Alba truffles year-round. Its proprietary NoH2O freeze-drying system, originally developed for the pharmaceutical industry to create medicine for regions without refrigeration, drops ingredients to minus 75 degrees Celsius over five days, evaporating all water while maintaining aroma and sensory properties.

“They’ve invented this way to freeze-dry truffles so you can enjoy them for months,” said Angelo Masarin of Salumeria 104 in Miami, who is partnering with Tartuflanghe on a private-label white truffle risotto. “The quality is incredible. It’s a company with high standards in technology; they even provide food for astronauts. By freeze-drying, it doesn’t lose vitamins. You just incorporate water and it becomes fresh again.”

Every year, Masarin hosts a 10-day truffle festival at Salumeria 104 featuring a range of simply prepared specials, including whitefish, risotto, and fior di latte gelato, to highlight the white truffles. He recently partnered with Tartuflanghe after meeting the family in Miami and realizing they share a passion for the ingredient.
“Their Alba truffle is like the Hermès with the top quality,” he said.

Chef Michele Casadei Massari of Lucciola in New York describes Tartuflanghe as a bridge between worlds.
“They offer what are probably the best fresh truffles available worldwide while maintaining remarkable attention to value and purity of experience,” Massari said. “The future of culinary art lies in valuable experiences priced right, built on undeniable sourcing and unquestionable quality. Tartuflanghe doesn’t just understand this, they embody it.”

Simple Sophistication Graces the Plate

When asked how to best showcase white Alba truffles, the chefs who use them share a common philosophy: simplicity. At Roscioli, the most popular preparation is burro e Parmigiano Francescana, macaroni or rigatoni tossed with French butter from Normandy and 24-month-aged Parmigiano Reggiano, finished with generous shavings of white truffle.
“It’s very simple and delicious and representative of our brand,” Moliterni said. “If you have great ingredients, we do our best not to fuck them up.”

Chef Massari echoes this philosophy in his recipe for tajarin al tartufo bianco d’Alba, using Tartuflanghe’s egg-yolk-rich pasta, made with 40 egg yolks per kilo of flour, along with butter, Parmigiano Reggiano, and fresh white truffle.
“The butter must never brown,” he said. “The Alba truffle’s perfume is delicate and disappears with too much heat. And never add garlic, cream, or oil. The beauty lies in restraint.”

Executive chef Fabrizio Schenardi at Four Seasons Orlando, a Torino, Italy, native, features truffles as special additions on the menu at the hotel’s Ravello restaurant, including a tartare di baccalà topped with white truffles, and is planning a white Alba truffle dinner for January 2026.
“Tartuflanghe continues to do an excellent job selecting the finest truffles, always sharing photos before shipping,” he said. According to Veronica Giraudo, Tartuflanghe’s export manager, she sends photos before every shipment. “It’s true. I do do that.”

Working With a Family, Not a Brand

Beyond quality and innovation, chefs repeatedly cite the personal relationships they’ve built with the family as reasons for their loyalty.

“Paolo and Veronica are two people I admire immensely, not only for what they create but for who they are,” Massari said. “They represent everything I love about Italian excellence: deep roots in the land, respect for tradition, and an unstoppable drive toward innovation. Tartuflanghe is a family, not a brand.”

As white truffle season peaks, restaurants around the world continue to trust Tartuflanghe, a company that grew from a small lab behind a family restaurant into a global standard-bearer for Alba truffles. Seventy-five years later, the Montanaro family’s commitment to quality, authenticity, and the land remains unchanged, ensuring that the world’s most precious fungus reaches the table with its magic intact.

“The responsibility we feel is not only to safeguard the future of a company; it is to honor and continue a family story built through sacrifice,” Paolo said. “Our entire business revolves around a product that is unique, rare, and impossible to plan for. It’s an organizational challenge, but also something truly special.”