DUBAI: White truffles from Alba are one of the rarest, most prized — and most expensive — things in the world of gastronomy. The annual charity auction in Alba, where they come from, is an 18-year-old tradition that was brought to the Middle East for the first time earlier this week.
An initiative of the Italian Restaurant Consulting Group, the Middle East edition of the World Alba White Truffle Auction aimed to put the region on the global culinary map, while contributing to a cause.
Historically, the auction has been held at Grinzane Castle in Alba, Italy — the home of the hyper-seasonal mushroom — and has only traveled to Hong Kong and Philadelphia in previous years. This year, the event was held simultaneously in three locations, Alba, Hong Kong and Dubai, with all three locations connected through satellite.
“We succeeded in bringing this auction here because we believe we have the right kind of people here, who are willing to spend for a cause, and also, there’s a good understanding of what truffles are, and their value,” said Aira Piva, general manager of Italian Restaurant Consulting.
Three truffles were auctioned off in Dubai n Nov 12 to an exclusive invitee-only audience of VIPs from across the GCC. The winning bidders not only get to own their own mushroom, but they also get a bespoke dinner in Dubai’s top restaurants, including Gary Rhodes’ Rhodes W1. The truffles, which started from a weight of 200 grams, were sold for AED 19,000 ($5172), AED 21,000, and AED 25,000 each.
All the proceeds from the Dubai auction go toward the Al Jalila Foundation, a non-profit established by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai, which plans to use the resources toward research of childhood diabetes and their “Road to awareness” campaign.
The showstopper of the evening was a rare signature truffle, weighing 450g, which was auctioned across all three locations in a simulcast, with the winning bid being taken out by Hong Kong for the second year in a row. While it was hoped that Dubai would break the world record this year, it was pipped to the post by Hong Kong, which held on to its distinction of being home to the highest bidder who bought the truffle for €75,000 ($88,443)
As Piva summed up, “truffles are very ephemeral, they are just about pleasure when you eat. Using it for charity adds a new level, gives it substantial meaning — to take something that is usually used for pure enjoyment, to help save a life.”
What is a truffle?
Truffles are particular kind of subterranean mushroom, usually found close to tree roots. The Ascomycete fungus is a species of tuber, and there are two kinds used in gastronomy – black and white. White truffles (or Tuber magnatum) are the rarer variety which cannot be farmed or manufactured, and are only found during a very short season between October and November, mainly in the Piedmont region of Italy.
According to Massimo Vidono, the go-to person for chefs and restaurants across the region when sourcing truffles, “truffles are a true gift of Mother Nature. You have to look for them, using specially trained dogs or pigs — some seasons you find lots, some seasons you don’t. That’s what makes them so special.”
Their unique flavor and aroma can only be described as umami and is available in high-end Italian and contemporary fusion restaurants as a seasonal menu item – with high price tags to match.
Billed as the first in the Mideast, truffle auction raises over $17,000 for charity
Billed as the first in the Mideast, truffle auction raises over $17,000 for charity
Filipinos master disaster readiness, one roll of the dice at a time
- In a library in the Philippines, a dice rattles on the surface of a board before coming to a stop, putting one of its players straight into the path of a powerful typhoon
MANILA: In a library in the Philippines, a dice rattles on the surface of a board before coming to a stop, putting one of its players straight into the path of a powerful typhoon.
The teenagers huddled around the table leap into action, shouting instructions and acting out the correct strategies for just one of the potential catastrophes laid out in the board game called Master of Disaster.
With fewer than half of Filipinos estimated to have undertaken disaster drills or to own a first-aid kit, the game aims to boost lagging preparedness in a country ranked the most disaster-prone on earth for four years running.
“(It) features disasters we’ve been experiencing in real life for the past few months and years,” 17-year-old Ansherina Agasen told AFP, noting that flooding routinely upends life in her hometown of Valenzuela, north of Manila.
Sitting in the arc of intense seismic activity called the “Pacific Ring of Fire,” the Philippines endures daily earthquakes and is hit by an average of 20 typhoons each year.
In November, back-to-back typhoons drove flooding that killed nearly 300 people in the archipelago nation, while a 6.9-magnitude quake in late September toppled buildings and killed 79 people around the city of Cebu.
“We realized that a lot of loss of lives and destruction of property could have been avoided if people knew about basic concepts related to disaster preparedness,” Francis Macatulad, one of the game’s developers, told AFP of its inception.
The Asia Society for Social Improvement and Sustainable Transformation (ASSIST), where Macatulad heads business development, first dreamt up the game in 2013, after Super Typhoon Haiyan ravaged the central Philippines and left thousands dead.
Launched six years later, Master of Disaster has been updated this year to address more events exacerbated by human-driven climate change, such as landslides, drought and heatwaves.
More than 10,000 editions of the game, aimed at players as young as nine years old, have been distributed across the archipelago nation.
“The youth are very essential in creating this disaster resiliency mindset,” Macatulad said.
‘Keeps on getting worse’
While the Philippines has introduced disaster readiness training into its K-12 curriculum, Master of Disaster is providing a jolt of innovation, Bianca Canlas of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) told AFP.
“It’s important that it’s tactile, something that can be touched and can be seen by the eyes of the youth so they can have engagement with each other,” she said of the game.
Players roll a dice to move their pawns across the board, with each landing spot corresponding to cards containing questions or instructions to act out disaster-specific responses.
When a player is unable to fulfil a task, another can “save” them and receive a “hero token” — tallied at the end to determine a winner.
At least 27,500 deaths and economic losses of $35 billion have been attributed to extreme weather events in the past two decades, according to the 2026 Climate Risk Index.
“It just keeps on getting worse,” Canlas said, noting the lives lost in recent months.
The government is now determining if it will throw its weight behind the distribution of the game, with the sessions in Valenzuela City serving as a pilot to assess whether players find it engaging and informative.
While conceding the evidence was so far anecdotal, ASSIST’s Macatulad said he believed the game was bringing a “significant” improvement in its players’ disaster preparedness knowledge.
“Disaster is not picky. It affects from north to south. So we would like to expand this further,” Macatulad said, adding that poor communities “most vulnerable to the effects of climate change” were the priority.
“Disasters can happen to anyone,” Agasen, the teen, told AFP as the game broke up.
“As a young person, I can share the knowledge I’ve gained... with my classmates at school, with people at home, and those I’ll meet in the future.”
