93rd International Alba White Truffle Fair

There was a time when marketing was simply called business acumen, or rather the ability of enlightened people to interpret and read the signs of an ever-changing society.

One of these people was Giacomo Morra, born in 1889, who turned Alba into the world capital of truffles. Skinny, with little hair, small eyes behind a pair of light, round glasses: you would have expected to see him behind a bank counter wearing detatched sleeves, but that was not his story, he was destined to become the “king of truffles”. His life would be ideal for a movie. Born into a modest, large family, he worked as a restaurateur, hotelier and was the first to grasp the intrinsic potential of this highly fragrant tuber, which the trifulau (truffle hunter) of the Langhe used to bring to light at night. In 1929, he had the brilliant idea of combining a truffle section with the end-of-harvest celebrations. The event was highly successful and the following year it was the turn of the Savoy family to inaugurate the first fair. However, this was not enough and so he soon began to use his great skills as a commercial strategist. He sent the best truffles to the VIPs of the time and invited them to Alba: Churchill, Eisenhower, Khrushchev, these were the years of the Cold War, but he was only on the side of the truffles. He invited Hitchcock, paid homage to Rita Hayworth and, in the autumn of 1961, a radiant Marilyn Monroe was seen walking through the streets of Alba.