Paengaroa becoming a magnet for truffle lovers

Owners of The Trading Post French Bistro in Paengaroa, Jordan Baudeche and Nina Vergnes with their daughters Maia, 3, and Ayla, 7 months.

As unlikely as it sounds, Paengaroa is becoming a magnet for truffle lovers.

The owners of The Trading Post French restaurant, Jordan Baudeche and Nina Vergnes, have teamed up with Te Puke Truffles owners Colin and Maureen Binns.

The restaurant is offering options of adding truffle to certain meals on the menu and full truffle influenced degustation evenings while Colin and Maureen are supplying the truffles as well as hosting regular truffle hunts and tastings.

Jordan and Nina are both from south-eastern France and are very familiar with the truffle, but didn't realise they could be grown in New Zealand until they moved here.

''People [here] sort of know about truffles as there are lots of foodies and they see it in recipe books and because also you can find recipe books from all around the world in New Zealand,'' says Nina.

She says while people are generally aware of the truffle, they haven't necessarily tasted it and many ''definitely don't know how to use it''.

''I used to work in a Mediterranean shop [in Gisborne] and we used to sell a lot of truffles - dried truffles - and I was impressed. But they were not from New Zealand, but from Italy and France.''

The restaurant began by adding the option of truffles on certain dishes and Jordan says he believes keeping things simple is the best way to enjoy truffles.

''It's more shaving and things like that - it's something you add on top of, rather than doing a specific dish.''

He says simple food like omelettes, pasta or gnocchi with shaved truffle work best.

Having said that, truffles can also be an ingredient in many dishes, but Nina says adding truffle dishes to the menu would be a challenge ''because we can't say how much demand we will have, but maybe at some stage, if we get known as a place where you can have truffle then, yeah''.

For the real enthusiast, Jordan and Nina have been running degustation dinners with all four courses, including dessert, truffle based.

''It's probably not my first choice to have it in a dessert - my favourite is on pasta or eggs - but it's a chance to try something new.''

Colin and Maureen contacted Jordan and Nina before they opened the restaurant.

''For us it's really part of our culture - we didn't know they had truffles here, so it was almost like it's meant to be,'' says Nina.

''They came a few times to the restaurant and they brought their truffles and some of their product and we went there.''

Nina says Maureen and Colin are really passionate.

''We are lucky to be in the same place.''

The Bay of Plenty isn't yet well known as a truffle growing region.

''I hope we are helping to change things. Long term we thought it would be nice to have a cooking class or cookbooks so people know what to do. Some of the feedback we get from Maureen is that people are really interested, but don't really know what to do with them, and that's why people buy truffle salt or truffle oil.

''We are taking it one step at a time, but Te Puke could be the next truffle destination.''

Maureen says, for her, it is ''absolutely magic'' to have French people who know so much about truffles running a local restaurant.

''And Jordan is just the most amazing French chef - I try things all the time, but it isn't part of our culture, it isn't something I've grown up with and I think I'm doing okay, but we went to their first truffle degustation night and the four courses that he did absolutely blew me away.

''When I go in with a bowl of truffles for Jordan to choose what he wants, he knows what's a good truffle, he knows what he wants and he picks up the truffle, inhales the aroma and smiles - not may New Zealanders have that in-built culture to love truffles - I just think it's awesome.''