Why Hong Kong loves white truffle so much – and why they’re so expensive: from ‘truffle king’ Umberto Bombana to Stanley Ho’s record-breaking tubers, inside the city’s lust for ‘white gold’

Sep 30, 2023

A chestnut dish finished with milk foam and white truffle. Photo: Castellana

One sure-fire way to know autumn is upon us? The culinary world is going crazy for that elusive and desperately expensive ‘white gold’, Alba white truffle – and nowhere gets giddier than Hong Kong

Casino magnate Stanley Ho once paid US$330,000 for a single tuber, and Hongkongers regularly claim the biggest pieces at the annual Alba White Truffle World Auction

It’s that time of year again when gourmands get excited – no, not over pecans and all things pumpkin spice, but over the ever-elusive white truffle. Known as “white gold” and “diamonds of the culinary world”, and only available between October and December, the arrival of white truffles in fine dining restaurants serves as an annual reminder that autumn is upon us. And among all the different kinds of truffles that exist, the Italian Alba white truffle is the rarest of them all, and can be even more expensive than gold itself, ounce for ounce.

In 2021, an 850-gram Alba white truffle was sold for €103,000 (US$110,000) while a year later, a 950-gram specimen fetched €184,000 (US$196,000). Both were sold through the annual Alba White Truffle World Auction – a charity event held every November in Piedmont, Italy, featuring the world’s largest and finest white truffles – and both were bought by Hong Kong bidders. In fact, out of the auction’s 23 years of history, there have only been a handful of times when the winning bidder was not from Hong Kong.

Still, these numbers pale in comparison to what the late Stanley Ho – Hong Kong and Macau’s gambling mogul and white truffle connoisseur – paid for his record-breaking tubers in 2007 and 2009. At 3.3 pounds (1.5kg) and 2.86 pounds (1.3kg) respectively, they remain two of the most expensive white truffles ever sold at a whopping US$330,000 each.