The Passionate Olive (26 page)
Read The Passionate Olive Online
Authors: Carol Firenze
For the Sensory Evaluation of Olive Oil course where you will learn how to evaluate olive oils by tasting recently released olive oils from California and Europe
.
Elisabetta Marchi guides educational tours in Italy … specializing in wine and olive oil
.
An annual festival (December—February) is held in Sonoma, California. The festival highlights the beautiful Season of the Olive, from harvest to press
.
Located in Impena, Italy, the ONAOO (Organizzazione Nazionale Assaggiatori Olio di Oliva—the National Organization for the Tasting of Olive Oil) was formed in 1983. As the first official organization to offer courses to certify olive oil—tasting panel judges throughout the world, the ONAOO is highly recognized. Course information, documents, and news items are provided on the website
.
A complete and comprehensive source of anything related to olive oil—what it is, who makes it, who’s who, tours, and olive-picking opportunities. It is here that you can also find out about worldwide events and even how to make olive oil soap
.
Health
An environmental network for “healthy people and a healthy planet.”
Highlights the olive oil cure for head lice!
An informative alternative medicine site with hundreds of remedies, protocols, and information to help you maintain good health
.
Olive Oil Museums … that I have visited in Italy
Housed in a restored medieval dwelling and situated in the historic center of Torgiano, Umbria, the Lungarotti Museo
dell’Olivo e dell’Olio (Olive and Olive Oil Museum) consists of eleven rooms providing a wealth of information ranging from specific cultivars to traditional presses and water-powered mills to the fascinating uses of olive oil in everyday life
.
Housed in a beautiful Art Nouveau building, constructed during the 1920s for the Fratelli Carli Corporation, the Museo dell’Olivo (Olive Tree Museum) was awarded the European Museum of the Year award in 1993, the year it opened. The museum portrays the olive tree as a symbol of the Mediterranean and highlights the leading role it has played in the economic, technical, artistic, and religious history of humanity
.
Located in Cisano di Bardolino on Lake Garda, the Museo Dell’Olio D’Oliva (Olive Oil Museum) exhibits a collection of antique items that were used in olive mills from the 1700s to the beginning of the twentieth century. As the first initiative of its kind, the museum, which opened in 1987, has examples of antique lever presses and more recent machinery
.
A delightful and friendly small museum (Antico Frantoio Sommariva) is situated in the old medieval walls of the city of Albenga. Within its stone vaulted-roof rooms are collections of amphoras, tools, machines, and objects used in the past to improve the cultivation of the olive tree and the production of olive oil
.
Located in the medieval city of Castlenuovo di Farfa, the Museo Dell’Olio della Sabina (Olive Oil Museum of Sabina) is a unique museum that is a fascinating sensory experience. Five world-renowned artists celebrate and interpret the significance and
traditions of olive oil and its presence in contemporary society though sculpture, art, and music
.
Located within the medieval city of Trevi, known as the Olive Oil Capital of Italy, the Museo della Civiltá dell’Ulivo (Museum of the Civilization of the Olive Tree) is an educational adventure with videos, artifacts, wall panels with explanations, cartoons, and interactive quizzes
.
Olive Oil Lamps
For an olive oil chamber lamp
.
For an Elazar olive oil lamp
.
Organizations
A wealth of information (frequently asked questions, current news, and events) from the COOC (California Olive Oil Council) is located here. Founded in 1992, the mission of the COOC is to make California a source of world-class olive oil and to exchange information about growing olives and making olive oil. Its membership is open to all interested consumers, as well as olive oil producers
.
Learn about the IOOC’s (International Olive Oil Council) charter, classifications of olive oil, and important international guidelines related to olive oil. Created in 1956 and located in Madrid, Spain, the IOOC is an intergovernmental organization in charge of administering the International Olive Oil Agreement
.
Restaurants
Cetrella is a European bistro and café located in Half Moon Bay, California. It features elegant and rustic northern Mediterranean cuisine in an inspired atmosphere, replete with fireplace and terrace setting. Erik Cosselmon, who contributed recipes to this book, is the executive chef
.
Frantoio Ristorante and Olive Oil Co. in Mill Valley, California, is the only restaurant in the United States with an in-house state-of-the-art olive-oil-production facility
.
A local favorite right off Union Square, Kuleto’s is a combination of old San Francisco aura, Italian conviviality, and contemporary vitality
.
Additional Information and Products
www.italiancookingandliving.com
Italian Cooking and Living and the Italian Culinary Center in New York, through the Italian Olive Oil and Specialty Food Center, hosts an olive oil club, offers a course in olive oil, and suggests fine Italian olive oils
.
Spain is the leading olive oil—producing country. This site focuses on the large variety of flavors, aromas, colors, and textures of Spanish olive oils
.
Detailed information about olive oil producers from France
.
Educationally rich and comprehensive, this site highlights the characteristics, taste, and authenticity of selected olive oils
.
Learn about olives and olive oils from Turkey. The website includes interesting information on Turkish olive oil production, the varieties of Turkish olives, exporters, and Turkish cuisine
.
Greece is the world’s largest consumer per capita of olive oil and the third-largest olive oil—producing country. This informative site is the home of SEVITEL, the Greek Association of Industries and Processors of Olive Oil. It includes a list of several olive oil producers and exporters and promotes Greek olive oil in the international market in cooperation with the Hellenic Foreign Trade Board (HEPO)
.
The Australian Olive Association promotes the development of the national olive industry in Australia. The website is a good place to find out about Australian olive oil
.
Russell Briggs offers unique olive oil from the Tasman Bay of New Zealand. The dramatic taste of the olive oil is due to the cultivars used and the beautiful sun and soil of the area
.
This site offers certified protected designation of origin gourmet products, including certified extra virgin European and California olive oils
.
Selected Bibliography
Barilla, Jean.
Olive Oil Miracle
. New Canaan, Conn.: Keats Publishing 1996.
Barranco, Diego.
El Cultivo del Olivo
. Madrid: Ediciones Mundi-Prensa, 1998.
Baussan, Olivier, and Jacques Chibois.
Olive Oil, A Gourmet Guide
. Paris: Flammarion, 2000.
Bickers, Merry.
I Didn’t Know That Olive Oil Would Burn!
Wolf Creek, Ore.: Merry Corliss, 1999.
Carli, Carlo, et al.
Museo dell’Olivo
. Bergamo: Poligrafische Bolis S.p.A, 1994.
Chiarello, Michael.
Flavored Oils
. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1995.
Cunningham, Scott.
Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs
. St. Paul: Llewellyn Publications, 1998.
—.
Magical Aromatherapy
. St. Paul: Llewellyn Publications, 1994.
Debarry, Nicolas.
The Little Book of Olive Oil
. Paris: Flammarion, 1999.
Dolamore, Anne.
The Essential Olive Oil Companion
. London: Grub Street, 1994.
Downie, David.
Enchanted Liguria
. New York: Rizzoli International Publications, 1997.
Dudley, Martin, and Geoffrey Rowell.
The Oil of Gladness
. London: Liturgical Press. 1993.
Kiritsakis, Apostolos.
Olive Oil: From the Tree to the Table
. 2nd Edition. Trumbull, Conn.: Food and Nutrition Press, 1998.
Klein, Margaret Blyth.
The Feast of the Olive
. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1994.
Knickerbocker, Peggy.
Olive Oil: From Tree to Table
. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1997.
Lungarotti, Maria Grazia Marchetti.
Olive and Oil Museum Itinerary
. Torgiano: Fondazione Lungarotti, 2000.
Midgley, John.
The Goodness of Olive Oil
. London: Pavilion Books Limited, 1992.
Moritz, Andreas.
The Amazing Liver Cleanse
. Bloomington, Ind: AuthorHouse, 2002.
Pickford, Louise.
The Olive Oil Cookbook
. New York: Smithmark
Publishers, 1994. Plotkin, Fred.
Recipes from Paradise
. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 1997.
Quatrochi, Kathlyn.
The Skin Care Book: Simple Herbal Recipes
. New
York: Interweave Press, 1997. Rogers, Ford.
Olives: Cooking with Olives and Their Oils
. Berkeley:
Ten Speed Press, 1995. Shaw, Jerry.
The Healing Power of Olive Oil
. Boca Raton, Fla.: Globe
Communications Corp., 1997. Stewart, Kimberly L. “Virtuosity: Extra Virgin Olive Oil Is Divine,”
Better Nutrition
, February 2003, 46–51. Taylor, Judith.
The Olive in California
. Berkeley: Ten Speed Press, 2000.
Tindall, Bruce, and Mark Watson.
How Does Olive Oil Lose Its Virginity?
New York: William Morrow, 1994.
Weinzweig, Ari.
A Guide to Good Olive Oil
. Ann Arbor, Mich.: Zingerman’s, 1995.
Grateful acknowledgment to the following to reprint excerpts:
The foreword to this book is taken from
A Thousand Days in Tuscany: A Bittersweet Adventure
by Marlena De Blasi, copyright © 2004 by Marlena De Blasi. Reprinted by permission of Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill.
“Fava Beans with Pecorino,” “Chive Oil,” “Tomato Oil,” “Basil Oil,” “Provençal Herb Oil,” “Romesco Sauce,” “Salsa Verde,” “Grilled Marinated Calamari with Fresh Tomato Sauce and Black Olives,” “Olive Oil Cake,” “Olive Oil Ice Cream,” “Olive Oil—Preserved Fish,” “Tuna Confit,” and “Ligurian Inspired Tuna Salad” by Erik Cosselmon. Reprinted courtesy of Erik Cosselmon, executive chef at Cetrella Bistro in Half Moon Bay, CA.
