The great gourmet Brillat-Savarin called them "the diamonds of cookery." The famous fungus is procured by Frenchmen and their pigs, who root them out where they grow underground. Also used are trufflehounds, a small breed halfway between a poodle and a terrier. Legend has it that truffles are best hunted by a virgin woman with a virgin sow.

Immensely expensive, the truffle's aphrodisiac powers are legend. Napoleon ate them for amatory puposes, as did the Marquis de Sade and Louis XIV. Louis' mistress, Madame Pompadour, was exhausted by his continual demands and attempted to inspire herself to love by living on a diet of vanilla, truffles and celery, intended to "heat the blood."