(upbeat music)
- Truffles are just such an elusive,
mysterious ingredient.
These are the Spanish winter black truffles;
they're from Périgord.
They just have this alluring, earthiness quality
that I've never tasted before.
They kept me totally obsessed with them
for almost 10 years now.
My name is Ian Purkayastha, and I procure
hard to find ingredients from around the world,
mainly fresh truffles.
I'm a dealer of sorts; I deal truffles out of my car.
It definitely has this underground element.
(doors slam)
When I was younger, people used to call me the Truffle Boy.
I started when I was 15, and I'm now 24.
I'm constantly on the hunt for identifying
the most desirable regions that produce
the very best truffles.
- They smell really nice. Where are these guys from?
- Spain.
They've never been successfully cultivated
on a commercial scale.
And they grow underground; and they're obviously
extremely rare and hard to find;
that's why they're worth their weight in gold.
(slow music)
As soon as the truffle is found,
the clock is constantly ticking,
because there's only a seven day shelf life.
They're 98 percent water; every single day that a truffle
is unused, it's evaporating.
I still get excited every time
I get a new truffle shipment in.
They are sent from Europe to JFK
where they're cleared by FDA, USDA,
Homeland Security and Customs.
I sort them, I go through every single truffle,
looking for imperfections,
and then I, basically hop in the car
with a box full of truffles.
Alright.
(door slam)
And sell to 90% of the fine dinning restaurants in New York.
Everyone from, David Chang to Sean Brock,
to Eleven Madison Park, Le Bernardin,
a variety of Michelin stared restaurants.
(rhythmic music)
During truffle season we import around $200,000
worth of truffles a week.
A small amount of truffles could be
anywhere from five to 15,000.
We're dealing with quite a lot of valuable product.
I'm doing something that I love,
it doesn't even feel like work anymore.
My warehouse smells like truffles,
my car smells like truffles, my apartment.
It's like I can't escape truffles;
it's like they're smothering me,
which is a great problem to have, I guess.
(chime)