British Travel Journal | Autumn/Winter 2022

PREVIOUS PAGE LEFT TO RIGHT: MELISSA WADDINGHAM
FOUNDER OF TRUFFLE AND MUSHROOM HUNTER; TRUFFLE
DOG TRAINING WITH THE ENGLISH TRUFFLE COMPANY;
TRUFFLE HUNTING WITH WILTSHIRE TRUFFLES
THIS PAGE: GRATED TRUFFLES AT ETCH. RESTAURANT IN
HOVE; TRUFFLE DOG TRAINING WITH THE ENGLISH TRUFFLE
COMPANY; HARRIET MANSEL, HEAD CHEF AT ROBIN WYLDE
NEXT PAGE: ZAK FROST, FOUNDER OF WILTSHIRE TRUFFLES
truffles, taking in the smell that resembles a freshly
opened tin of sweetcorn. Straight out of the ground,
the truffles hold a rather mild scent, which develops
over time. To Melissa, pleasant hints of white
spirit and a very light diesel start appearing after
a couple of days. An experienced forager with a
forestry degree, Melissa provides hands-on truffle
experiences in the Sussex forests. Sometimes, she
feeds participants luscious truffle creations, like
baked apples with truffle-infused cream and honey,
or a hot celeriac soup with freshly gathered truffles
grated on top. At home, she whips up truffle frozen
yoghurts, shaves truffles over warm bread-andbutter
puddings or cures egg yolks in homemade
truffle salt “I’m half-French, I love cooking.”
Melissa hunts with two Working Cocker Spaniels,
Ela and Aesti. Pigs — the original truffle-hunting
companions — were swapped for dogs by the
1700s, as their love for truffles can be as passionate
as the one of human gourmands. Stopping pigs
from eating truffles is hard, stories of nine-fingered
hunters teach us, and most dogs are happy to work
for treats. “My girls actually really enjoy truffles!”
Melissa laughs. “And I let them have an occasional
one.” After all, this is how truffles replicate; unlike
mushrooms, which use wind to spread their spores,
truffles depend on animals to dig them, eat them
and disperse their spores by defecating beneath a
different tree. This is where the intoxicating smell
comes in handy — a truffle is found when its aroma
can be detected by squirrels, foxes, deers or boars.
Human sense of smell is not strong enough, which is
why we usually need help.
Truffles grow on roots of certain kinds of
trees, like oak or silver birch, forming a symbiotic
relationship with their hosts. Unable to make their
own food through photosynthesis, truffles share
resources with the tree. The truffles 'feed' the tree
with water and micronutrients harvested from the
soil in exchange for sugars, produced by the tree
from sunlight. Truffles like rich, alkaline soils, chalky
or lime-rich. “It’s the dog who finds truffles, but first,
the human has to find the right place to go look for
them. I spent many weeks studying maps and woods
to identify the right terrain," says James Feaver, who
still still remembers his first successful truffle hunt.
“I was grinning like a Cheshire cat for several days.”
The English Truffle Company sells wild truffles
hunted by James, mostly to individual buyers who
wish to wow their friends at a dinner party or enjoy a
luxurious egg scramble for Christmas breakfast. On
top of that, James runs truffle-hunting experiences
in Dorset, Wiltshire and Hampshire. “The location
is secret, I usually share it the night before — people
enjoy the thrill of secrecy.” James skilfully excavates
the first subterranean treats of the hunt and then
everyone gets a go. He encourages people to get
down and smell the ground ("You know you’ve had
a good day when you go home with mud all over
your face"). The woodland endeavours are followed
36 BritishTravelJournal.com