Toronto’s ‘truffle lady’ delivers the mysterious scent chefs crave

Alex Consiglio GTA,

The Toronto Star
Published on Wed Jan 09 2013

Wanda Srdoc opens her trunk and grabs a plastic foam cooler and pink Hello Kitty lunch bag.

A pungent odour wafts from the cooler. She closes the trunk and briskly walks through a downtown alley, through the back door into the kitchen at Edulis Restaurant.

She doesn’t even have to announce her arrival — head chef Michael Caballo picks up the strong scent of her cargo immediately.

From Pearson to Pangaea, a truffle pusher’s journey

SIRI AGRELL

The Globe and Mail
Published

Istria: Going for Gold

MARY LUZ MEJIA

Vacations Magazine
Published Spring 2012

Truffles – a gourment ingredient that sends chefs and food cognoscenti alike into a culinary euphoria.  Those who enjoy them get almost misty-eyed at the thought of the tubers that grow among tree roots five to 20 centimetres underground, being shaved into paper-thin slices atop their favourite dish.  more…

Magic Mushrooms: A taste for truffles

JACKI NELSON
Local Magazine
Published Spring 2012

Seeing Wanda Srdoc dash out the door of her beach area home – carefully protecting a small cooler under her arm – is a common sight for friends who know where she’s headed … and it’s not a picnic!  Wanda is an importer of delicate white truffles and she regularly meets with some of the most prominent culinary icons of Toronto – top chefs who are safer to add her highly-prized food ingredient to their specialty menus. more …

Restaurant Review: Niagara Street Cafe

GINA MALLET

The National Post
Published Dec 2, 2010

‘Tis the season to eat fresh truffles. I hail a passing pig, the nonpareil truffle hunter, to hunt them down. She sniffs the air, gives a grunt and trots straightaway to the Niagara Street Cafe, Anton Potvin’s festive little boîte in the rising condo corridor along King Street West. The truffle’s release of pheromones is that powerful! Sure enough, I find both white and black truffles for the asking. Just jetted in from Croatia.

The $250 Garnish

SASHA CHAPMAN

Toronto Life

Wanda Srdoc, better known as the Truffle Lady to Toronto’s top chefs, begins her work day as most people are heading home. On Tuesday evenings throughout the fall, she drives out to Pearson to pick up her weekly shipment of white truffles arriving from Istria, Croatia. She spends the rest of the night visiting chefs and dealing out orders as quickly as she can. Truffles lose their moisture by the minute, so they diminish in weight—and value—as the night progresses. more …