There was a very special year’s truffle delivery trip. It was 1990. After a unanimous agreement between the Fair Authority and the municipal administration of Alba, it was decided to deliver the recognition to the great tenor Luciano Pavarotti, who, unable to come to the city to collect the award due to the important commitments in the program, he said available to receive us at his home for the conferment. The invitation was accepted immediately.
I went as a photographer: it was important to document that moment that would become historic. We left one morning in the direction of Modena; at the head of the delegation were Enzo Demaria and Mimmo Bonardi, then respectively mayor and president of the Truffle Fair.
It was a special day. After a short drive we decided to stop at the Autogrill for a coffee and, surprisingly, at the counter we met Adriano Celentano, also on the road. A casual meeting, but chance often pays off when you least expect it. The mayor introduced himself and told him about our destination and the delivery of the truffle to Pavarotti. Celentano recommended that we “greet the Maestro and the beautiful city of Alba”, where he remembered singing in the early 1960s, at the beginning of his career, staying at the Savona hotel and eating a magnificent truffle fondue. The “springy” sang in the “Usa” ballroom, next to the Mermet ballroom.
We resumed the journey happy. «Sometimes it can happen – said the mayor Demaria – that one goes to Modena from Pavarotti and meets Celentano. If we had had an extra truffle it would have been the first delivered to Autogrill ». And we all burst out laughing. We arrived in Modena in front of the large villa in the early afternoon. After introducing ourselves, they showed us the way to the stables where we would find the Master, warned of our arrival. We walked along the avenue, we found him intent on playing cards, one of the pastimes he loved most after horseback riding: at his table were the famous “friends of the trump”, or his popular family. A group that accompanied him on all his tours around the world, more than seventy. It is said that they played trump even between one act and another of his shows, that behind the curtain there was a table that was forbidden to remove: playing with friends calmed him and gave him security.
Pavarotti was tied to his land and to the world he loved infinitely, through those people he felt at home even while he was away. When he saw us enter the great hall he left the cards on the table, got up and, spreading his arms, greeted us with a warm “hello Alba”. He did not spare himself in hospitality: we spent half an hour with him and his friends, the time to deliver the truffle, two jokes and some photographs (he took the shots without hesitation).
We exchanged a few words about cooking: he was a connoisseur of gastronomy, he loved Langa and truffles. He explained to us how he would eat it and with which dishes, then he addressed the “friends of the trump” implying that he would share it with them. He said he was enthusiastic about our wines and our area that he would visit with pleasure as soon as possible and kept his promise a few years later.
We left satisfied to have met the Master and secured the truffle of the year. That gift represented a story, that of our land, a fruit that comes from the roots and reaches the Olympus of gastronomy. The award to a prestigious representative of Italian culture like Luciano Pavarotti meant a lot. We resumed the road back with the certainty of having met a man of heart and great sympathy, who made our country known in the world. Above all, his great humanity, made of simplicity and friendship, has impressed us. From that moment on we thought that, in addition to the «friends of the trump» Pavarotti would have brought the scent of our truffle with him to all the theaters in the world. –