First bite at £28,000 truffle!
It grew in the dirt under a Tuscan tree, weighs 1.9lb, and cost £28,000. It is the world's most expensive white truffle, coveted by Russian billionaires, Hollywood royalty and Arab princes.
And, at the Knightsbridge restaurant Zafferano, I became the first person ever to sample it. My fork - laden with veal tartare, quail's egg and pungent shavings of the precious fungus - trembled. This mouthful alone was worth more than I would usually spend on a meal for two.
I chewed, savoured, swallowed.
Truffle with cheese fondue, truffle with tagliatelle and truffle with scrambled egg followed, all prepared by Zafferano's awardwinning chef Andy Needham, all equally fragrant and delicious. The flavour was rich but delicate and complex, halfway between that of a smoked cheese and a strong mushroom.
The thickly-veined flakes from the outer skin had a dark, earthy tang, those from nearer the centre a milkier taste and a paler hue.
There was hardly any texture - truffle melts on the tongue - but each tiny sliver gave off a ripe aroma that stayed in my nostrils for hours. Perhaps it was the smell of money.
But was this truffle really worth the price? Frankly, yes. Because the pleasure was not just in the eating. It lay also in knowing that the Evening Standard had beaten the great and the good to a taste of the truffle, and that it was all for a good cause. Zafferano's manager, Enzo Cassini, invited 200 regulars, including Gwyneth Paltrow and Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich, to bid for the truffle for the charity Children In Crisis.
Rumour has it that Paltrow put in £10,000 and Abramovich £15,000, with the rest made up by bankers from Goldman Sachs but Mr Cassini is too much of a diplomat to confirm it.
The truffle has since been in a safe inside a locked fridge in Zafferano's basement kitchen.
"We had a call from a very wealthy man from Dubai who offered us £20,000 for the truffle," said Mr Cassini. "We were tempted, because it would mean more money for charity, but it would not have been fair on our regulars, who bid first."
This week, those regulars will be offered free dishes made with the truffle.
