What Is the 10th Annual All Black Truffle Menu at La Toque?
The La Toque truffle menu is a multi-course tasting menu built entirely around fresh Australian Black Truffles, running July 8 through July 19 at La Toque inside the Westin Verasa in downtown Napa. This is the 10th consecutive year Chef Ken Frank has centered a summer tasting menu on Australian Black Truffles, a milestone that matters because consistency in sourcing rare seasonal ingredients is hard to sustain, and a decade of the same program signals established grower relationships and a kitchen that knows exactly what it's doing with the ingredient.
The commitment here is total. The La Toque truffle menu doesn't offer truffles as a finishing flourish or an optional add-on. Every course features fresh Australian Black Truffles, incorporated throughout the menu rather than shaved tableside over a single dish. That's a meaningful distinction from the truffle supplement model that most restaurants default to, where $40 to $60 buys a few grams over pasta or eggs. At La Toque, the truffle is the architecture of the meal, not the decoration.
A vegetarian version of the Summer Edition menu is available, and optional wine pairings selected by La Toque's beverage team can be added. For guests who want to go deeper on the wine side, there's also a one-night-only preview event on June 18 worth considering separately, more on that below.
Style and Standing
Truffle Type | Season | Species | Aromatic Intensity | Featured at La Toque |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Australian Black Truffle | June, August (Southern Hemisphere winter) | Tuber melanosporum | High | Yes, exclusively |
Périgord Black Truffle (France) | November, March (European winter) | Tuber melanosporum | High | Winter season only |
Alba White Truffle (Italy) | October, November | Tuber magnatum | Very High | No |
Summer Truffle | May, August (Europe) | Tuber aestivum/uncinatum | Low | No, explicitly excluded |
Why Australian Black Truffles Belong on a Napa Summer Table
The seasonal logic is straightforward once you understand the Southern Hemisphere calendar. Australian Black Truffles, Tuber melanosporum, the same species as the Périgord black truffle, reach their peak in the Southern Hemisphere's winter, which runs June through August. That window aligns almost exactly with Northern California's summer, which means July is the only moment these truffles arrive in Napa at prime quality while European truffles are months away from their own season.
La Toque has been working within this seasonal window for more than a decade, and the restaurant exclusively features true winter black truffles across all its truffle menus. That exclusivity matters: there are cheaper truffle alternatives (summer truffles, uncinatum varieties) that restaurants sometimes substitute when the premium ingredient isn't available, but they carry a fraction of the aromatic intensity. By committing only to Tuber melanosporum, La Toque is making a sourcing decision that shapes the entire character of the menu.
"Having access to fresh truffles during the summer allows us to create combinations that simply aren't possible during our January truffle season"
, Ken Frank, chef and owner of La Toque
The summer context also changes what the truffle can be paired with. Napa's July growing season produces sweet corn, stone fruit, and morel mushrooms, ingredients that have no overlap with the root vegetables and braises that anchor a January truffle menu. The result is a version of the truffle menu that tastes distinctly of summer in Northern California, not a replication of the winter program with different dates. That seasonal specificity is the actual reason to make the trip in July rather than waiting for the winter edition.
For truffle enthusiasts who typically plan around European winter truffle season, the Périgord harvest, the Alba white truffle festival in October and November, the La Toque summer program offers a quality-equivalent experience in a California fine dining setting, at a time of year when no comparable event exists on the West Coast. If you've been to a serious truffle dinner in France or Italy and wondered whether you'd ever find the same ingredient quality in the United States during summer, La Toque's decade-long sourcing record is the closest answer available.
What to Expect: Courses, Wine Pairings, and the Full Experience
La Toque is Chef Ken Frank's French-inspired, seasonally driven restaurant, and the truffle menu sits within that framework. The kitchen sources ingredients from a network of local farmers and producers, and the Summer Edition menu pairs those market-driven ingredients with Australian Black Truffles across every course. Sweet corn, stone fruit, and morel mushrooms are confirmed components of the 2026 menu, giving a sense of the flavor register, bright, peak-summer produce meeting the earthy, aromatic depth of fresh black truffle.
The optional wine pairing is selected by La Toque's beverage team, which has earned recognition for the restaurant's wine program. For guests who want to build their own pairing rather than follow the set program, the vegetarian menu option provides a different structural approach to the same ingredient. Both paths, the paired experience and the standalone menu, are available for the full July 8 to 19 run.
Compared to single-evening truffle dinners that other Napa restaurants occasionally program, the 12-night format gives guests flexibility to plan around their schedule without competing for a single night's reservations. That said, the window is still narrow: 12 nights in July, no extension, no repeat until 2027. Reservations should be treated accordingly.
For guests who want to experience the Rothschild wine program alongside the truffle season, the June 18 preview dinner at La Toque pairs a four-course tasting menu with wines from the Domaines Barons de Rothschild portfolio, including two vintages of Château Lafite Rothschild.
Olivier Gailly, Directeur Développement Commercial for Domaines Barons de Rothschild, will be present for the evening. This is a one-night-only dinner, it doesn't repeat during the July truffle run, and it functions as a standalone event for guests whose primary interest is the Rothschild portfolio rather than the truffle program specifically.
If both are relevant to you, June 18 followed by a July reservation is the logical sequence.
Practical Details: Dates, Location, and How to Book
The La Toque truffle menu runs July 8 to 19, 2026, exclusively. La Toque is located inside the Westin Verasa in downtown Napa, which makes it straightforward to combine with a broader Napa Valley itinerary. Staying at the Westin Verasa puts you on-site, which simplifies logistics if you're planning a multi-night Napa trip around the truffle menu.
For the June 18 Château Lafite Rothschild dinner, contact La Toque directly for reservation details, as one-night-only wine dinners at this level typically require advance confirmation and may have limited covers.
Price points for the 2026 Summer Edition menu were not published at the time of this writing. Check latoque.com for current pricing on both the tasting menu and optional wine pairings before booking.
The 10th anniversary of the Summer Edition is a reasonable moment to try the program if you've been tracking it. A decade of the same sourcing commitment, the same seasonal window, and the same all-truffle format is an unusually long track record for a single-ingredient event, and the summer pairing combinations that Frank has built around Australian Black Truffles represent a version of the truffle tasting menu that exists nowhere else in California at this time of year.
Frequently Asked Questions
When does the La Toque truffle menu run in 2025?
The La Toque truffle menu runs July 8 through July 19 at La Toque inside the Westin Verasa in downtown Napa. There is also a one-night-only preview event on June 18 for guests who want an early experience.
What kind of truffles are featured on the La Toque truffle menu?
The menu exclusively features fresh Australian Black Truffles (Tuber melanosporum), the same species as the Périgord black truffle. La Toque does not substitute cheaper summer truffle varieties, committing only to true winter black truffles at peak quality.
Is the La Toque truffle menu available for vegetarians?
Yes, a vegetarian version of the Summer Edition truffle menu is available. Optional wine pairings selected by La Toque's beverage team can also be added to either version of the menu.
How is the La Toque truffle menu different from a typical restaurant truffle supplement?
Unlike the common truffle supplement model, where $40 to $60 adds a few shaved grams over a single dish, every course on the La Toque truffle menu features fresh Australian Black Truffles throughout. The truffle is the foundation of the entire meal, not a finishing garnish.
Why does La Toque serve Australian Black Truffles in summer instead of European truffles?
Australian Black Truffles peak during the Southern Hemisphere's winter (June through August), which aligns with Napa's summer when European truffles are months away from their own season. This makes July the only window when Tuber melanosporum arrives in Napa at prime quality.
