Terre de Truffes - Nice

My husband and I leave my aunt’s beautiful house in Grasse to spend a couple of days by the sea in Nice. Nice is somewhat unfairly overlooked when compared to more glamourous locations along the Cote D’Azur, such as Cannes or St Tropez. However, it is a fun and dynamic city with an interesting food scene and an exceptional farmers market on the Cours Saleya. The close proximity to Italy is reflected in the Nicoise cuisine, which has a strong meditteranean flavour, and which reflects the distinctly unpretentious cuisine which has come to define the South of France.

Terre de Truffes was our first port of call. I must confess I am a bit of a truffle junkie so it comes as no surprise that I was instantly lured in by its unique claim that every one of its dishes contained the magnificent truffle, even the ice cream.

Terre de Truffes is Chef’s Clement Bruno’s conception. In fact his name ‘Bruno’ ( as he is fondly known to friends) has become synonomous with the truffle. His main venture is his restaurant in Lourges an hour from Nice. Terre de Truffes is its offshoot and offers a more informal relaxed dining experience. It also sells a huge variety of truffle products bearing the owner’s famed name.

The heavy oak paneling gives the dining room a dark almost austere feel, which is balanced by the rickety tables and chairs placed very close together making it feel intimate and romantic.

My first course of salad with truffles was plonked down at break neck speed about 10 minutes after we were seated. There appeared to be no attention to the way the food was composed on the plate, just a mound of salad leaves interspersed by some greasy lardons with the most abundant amount of shaved truffles I had ever seen on one plate. Wow, this must have cost them a fortune, I mused, until I later learned that they probably used a cheaper variety of truffle called the tuber estivum, or brumale. There is no comparison in taste between the perigord or alba to the lesser truffles offered here. The latter emitted an unpleasant feral aroma, which when eaten tasted like moldy mushrooms!

Scrambled eggs and truffles are a match that in my opinion are the most perfect union. Gordon Ramsay stated once that every new employee is asked to prepare scrambled eggs before working in one of his kitchens. This is the benchmark he judges them on. Yet it seems that most restaurants are unable to produce this fairly basic dish. Terre de Truffes offering was beyond dismal. My dish of scrambed eggs with truffles was a concoction of claggy, overdone eggs with a thick layer of grease on top, festooned with the odious truffles from the dish before. Yuck, yuck, yuck!!!

I better flee this restaurant quickly before my love affair with truffles dies!!

Marginally better was my husbands dish of torellinii and yes, you name it, truffles. The size and richness of the dish meant that we shared it and still felt stuffed beyond belief.

That night, straight after dinner, I was left with a distended belly and some rather unpleasant truffly memories. It was going to take me a while to fall in love again. Despite Chibois’s sublime truffle menu, I was convinced I had been scarred for life, that is until La Reserve Beaulieu, and that’s a whole different story!

Terre De Truffes
11 rue Saint-François de Paule
Nice
93 62 07 68

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