It’s no trifle cooking an $8,000 white truffle, but the students and staff at Manhattan’s Food and Finance HS were up to the challenge.

The school received the pricey Italian morsel from Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio, who was given it by the mayor and city of Alba, in the Piedmont region of northern Italy, in honor of his Italian heritage.

Every year Alba selects one person to receive a truffle. Past recipients have included John F. Kennedy, Winston Churchill, Rita Hayworth and Alfred Hitchcock.

Students and staff cooked and ate the fist-sized “Truffle of the Year” as part of a special lunch on Nov. 19 attended by UFT President Michael Mulgrew, representatives from de Blasio’s office, and other union and political leaders.

“It was wonderful to be there and watch as our students had this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to cook with and eat a white truffle,” Mulgrew said. “I couldn’t think of a better group for the mayor-elect to give this gift than our public school students.”

Before the truffle could be served, it had to be washed, which chef Jonathan Benno, visiting from Lincoln Ristorante for the occasion, did with great ceremony as curious students and visitors looked on. Benno then cut the truffle into pieces and, with the students’ help, shaved it over pasta prepared earlier by the students.

The importance of the occasion was not lost on UFT Chapter Leader Geoffrey Tulloch, better known as Chef Geoff.

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Jonathan Fickies

“It was a very special gift,” Tulloch said. “It could have gone to any other school, to a college, to the French Culinary Institute, to many other places. The fact that it has come here, to Food and Finance HS, is inspiring. We feel very honored.”