All About Olive Oil: A Culinary Class
by Sonja Albrecht
sonja.albrecht@chefchoolreview.com
Chef School Review Columnist
If you’re contemplating a culinary career, you’ll want to know all about olive oil. Olive oil has become a staple of the American diet, superseding its less heart-healthy cousins, Crisco and butter. Here’s a quick class in the subtleties of this ‘divine juice.’
Olive Oil Primer
Olive oil quality depends on oleic acid content, with lower acidity producing higher quality oil:
- Virgin Olive Oil: The culinary standard, this category includes four classes ranging from Extra Virgin Cold-pressed (acidity < 1%) to Lampante (3.3%)
- Refined Olive Oil: Processed for consumption
- Olive Oil: A blend of virgin and refined, suitable for frying and other culinary uses
- Pomace Olive Oil: An inferior class used for soap
A Good Vintage
Olive oil production has become an artisan craft, with small-batch orchards producing the most fragrant oils in the culinary world. A high class olive oil can inspire rhapsodies from food connoisseurs. California olive grower Michael Keller staked his culinary career on his first experience of freshly-pressed olive oil: “It was alive, singing.”
Food critics have taken a cue from wine labels to capture the complexities of this culinary delight. Mendocino’s Stella Cadente, for example, won Best of Class for the “notes of mown hay, tomato leaves and aromatic herbs” in its olive oil, which critics praised as “very lively with a good texture and pleasingly bitter and spicy notes.”
Divine Juice
Olive oil is nothing new to the Greeks and Italians, who have been producing it for thousands of years. Legend has it the Greek goddess Athena established her dominance over Poseidon, god of the sea, by drawing a heavenly liquor from a tree. Her olive oil beat Poseidon’s salt water hands down. In ancient times, the gods’ immortality was attributed to the oil; these days, scientists attribute Mediterranean longevity to this diet staple.
Inspiring a Culinary Career
If you’re swept away by the exquisite flavors in olive oil, a culinary career might be your calling. A good culinary class can introduce you to the subtleties of olive oil—you’ll be creating foods fit for the gods in no time!
Sources
Get Oily: Virtual Home of Olive Oil
Olive Oil Classification, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
Stella Cadente Olive Oil
The Olive Oil Source
About the Author
Sonja Albrecht works as a writer and editor for an online media company. She has also taught college writing and completed a Ph.D. in English.
Posted on March 4, 2007 at 4:33 PM
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