MARCOS MORCILLO

Tour Leader

Marcos Morcillo started to focus on mycorrhizas after graduating in Biology at the University of Barcelona (SPAIN) in 1995.
In 1998 he became director of Micología Forestal & Aplicada (MF&A at micofora.com); a private research centre specializing in truffles.
His centre also specializes in technology transfer, involving leading licenced projects abroad in order to create production nurseries for truffle and saffron milk cap infected trees. MF&A’s nurseries, including Spain and those licensed in USA, New Zealand, Chile, Mexico and South Africa have collectively produced over a million truffle infected trees from 1989, thereby helping to establish and manage hundreds of truffle orchards in Europe and overseas.
In 2006 Marcos wrote the quality standards to certify truffle infected trees for the Government of Andalucia (Spain). Marcos has also published two books on truffle farming:
– Manual de truficultura Andaluza. 2007. Ed. Gypaetus y Consejería de MedioAmbiente. Junta de Andalucía. p. 176. ISBN 978-84-935194-3-8
– Truffle Farming Today, a Comprehensive World Guide. 2015. Ed. Micologia Forestal & Aplicada. 348pp. ISBN 978-84-617-1307-3

He is a truffle grower as well, running a 20 hectares plantation of melanosporum and borchii.

XAVIER VILANOVA

Tour Leader

Dr. Xavier Vilanova Sola studied biology and became doctor in microbiology in 2005. He is co-author of several scientific papers and communications on bacterial ecology published around the world. Xavier has also had different directive tasks for an 8 year period on public administration.
He now runs the research at Micologia Forestal & Apliacada, with one of the main topics focused on bacteria associated to T. melanosporum.
Xavier has his own truffle orchard of more than 8.000 trees inoculated with T. melanosporum and T. borchii.
He is co-author of the latest book on truffle farming: MORCILLO M, SANCHEZ M, VILANOVA X. (2015): Truffle Farming Today, a Comprehensive World Guide. Ed. Micologia Forestal & Aplicada. 348pp. ISBN 978-84-617-1307-3

Dr. Pedro Marco is a researcher at the Center for Research and Agrifood Technology of Aragon (CITA) and a professor at the University of Zaragoza. His line of research focuses on the application of post-harvest treatments to extend the shelf life of fresh truffles, and how agricultural practices and processing affect their sensory, health and nutritional quality.
The truffle grows underground and when we harvest it it becomes stressed, its metabolic activity is greater than that of any other plant species and therefore it “runs out” earlier and “dies”.
In his two-hour workshop you will learn:
– Why a truffle is so interesting from a gastronomic point of view, we will learn about the aromatic diversity of the species.
– What are the main factors of degradation of the truffle.
– Application of post-harvest technologies to fresh truffles and how they affect the quality of the truffles.
– Transfer of aroma to other food matrices, processing of truffles and truffled products.

PEDRO MARCO