The US restaurant industry’s top truffle dealer is a 24-year-old college dropout from Arkansas

If you’ve eaten at white-tablecloth restaurant in the US, chances you’ve tasted something Ian Purkayastha has procured. Peddling a daily bounty of imported spices, exotic sea urchins, three-month-old suckling pigs, and precious truffles, he is the restaurant industry’s favorite luxury foods dealer, serving 90% of Michelin-star restaurants in New York City and some 200 chefs across the country.