La Toque’s late-fall calendar pairs two fungi-focused dinners: a Nov. 20 Truffles & Barolo Dinner and a Dec. 13 wild-mushroom feast. The November event marks the 13th year Italian chef Carlo Zarri has returned to the Napa restaurant. Its five-course tasting menu costs $240 per person, plus applicable charges; optional wine pairings are an additional $125 per person.
Event details in a PRWeb release say Zarri will collaborate with La Toque chef Ken Frank on the menu. The evening starts at 5:45 p.m. with Alta Langa Brut sparkling wine and passed hors d'oeuvres, followed by dinner at 6:30 p.m. Guests may also buy aged Barolos from the Zarri family’s private cellar by the glass, according to the release.
The menu highlights listed in the release include spinach flan with fonduta and black autumn truffle, Carnaroli risotto with Grana Padano and shaved white truffle, and short rib braised in Nebbiolo with roasted root vegetables and winter truffle. The Napa Valley Register reported that Frank considers the dinner a La Toque tradition and welcomes Zarri’s return.
A Long-Running Napa Truffle Dinner
This isn't Zarri's first swing through La Toque's dining room. A 2017 event listing from NapaValley.com described that year's dinner as his sixth year returning to the restaurant, when he joined forces with Frank for what was billed as another white and black truffle accented menu on Dec. 7, 2017. More recently, the Napa Truffle Festival held its own Truffles & Wine Dinner at La Toque on Jan. 18, 2025, an event billed as the first time Napa and Sonoma black truffles had appeared at the festival in its history.
What California Truffle Research Shows
California truffle production is also a subject of local research. According to UC Agriculture and Natural Resources, UC Cooperative Extension advisor Scott Oneto and Staci O’Toole are studying conditions that support Perigord truffle production in a Placerville hazelnut orchard. The report describes research into growing conditions; it does not provide harvest or commercial production figures.
Reservations are required for the Nov. 20 dinner, the release notes, and the restaurant is led by Frank, who has steered La Toque's kitchen through more than a decade of these guest-chef collaborations.
Mushrooms Follow Truffles in December
Less than a month later, La Toque is turning its attention from truffles to wild mushrooms. The restaurant will welcome back mycologist Dr. Gordon Walker, also known as Dr. Fun Guy, for its second annual Fungi Forager's Feast on Dec. 13, according to the same PRWeb release.
That evening opens with a Champagne reception and mushroom-inspired hors d'oeuvres, before a five-course tasting menu highlighting seasonal wild mushrooms is served at 6 p.m. The Champagne reception and tasting menu are priced at $175 per person, with optional wine pairings available for an additional $125 per person, plus applicable charges — the same pairing surcharge attached to the November truffle dinner. Following dinner, Walker will host a conversation and book signing, with copies of his book, Dr. Fun Guy's Passport to Kingdom Fungi, available for purchase. Reservations are required for the mushroom feast as well.
Together, the two dinners give Napa diners back-to-back chances this season to sample Italian truffles, Barolo wines and wild mushrooms under one roof. More information on both events is available at latoque.com.
