Fab fungus

For the next few weeks, chefs at fine Italian restaurants around the world are shaving precious white truffles on their best dishes, such as this hand-cut Tajarin egg yolk pasta at Aqua in Hong Kong. [Photo provided to China Daily]

'It is not a job. It's a passion, a real sickness!" It is the early hours of the morning and Giovanni Sacchetto is explaining why chilly autumn nights find him trailing by moonlight through the woods around Alba in the Piedmont region of northern Italy. Sacchetto, 64, and his beloved companion Dora, a sprightly Lagotto Romagnolo gundog, are on the hunt for white truffles, the hard-to-find fungi famed among foodies for their earthy scent, and their equally heady prices. "I can go to bed at 11 pm and be up again at 3 am, ready to go out again," Sacchetto says. "It is not for the money. It is a sickness you have inside.

"A truffle is a strange thing. And it's lovely, because it's so strange. You never know where you might find one. Never."

Now 9, Dora has been Sacchetto's constant companion since she was an eager young puppy learning how to use her sensitive nose to sniff out truffles buried beneath the forest floor.

"I'm not saying it is better than a wife, but for a truffle hunter his dog is something... indescribable," Sacchetto says with a smile.