Signature dish
Zucchini flower stuffed with black truffle (le poupeton)
Roger Vergé · 1930–2015 · Le Moulin de Mougins, Provence
A male zucchini flower stuffed with black truffle and mushrooms, gently cooked and served with a butter sauce built on mushroom fumet; the name comes from the bundled flower's resemblance to a doll.
Why it works
Truffle aroma compounds are fat-soluble, so the mushroom-fumet butter dissolves them and carries them through the flower's thin, almost tasteless petal wall, which survives the cooking because the flower steams in its own moisture rather than meeting direct heat.