The bottle of olive oil in your cupboard is probably rancid. Fil Bucchino, a former punk rock musician turned olive oil expert, visits Italy every year during the harvest on a quest for exceptional extra virgin olive oils that will change your life and transform your dish.
We are Obsessed.
"A few years ago, when my friend Fil Bucchino handed me a bottle of properly produced olive oil, I realized it was completely different from the grocery store shelves. It was not only healthy but also full of flavor and complexity. It was so complex I wanted to know how it was made, where it came from, and who made it. This is a lesson that applies to all food - when produced with knowledge, care, and without cutting corners, it can be nutritious, delicious and even tell a story." - Ed Zych (Director)
This film is about passion and going the extra mile to create something exceptional. It's a universal theme that transcends borders and cultures.
OwOO Channel
Obsessed with Olive Oil is dedicated to everything extra virgin olive oil - from dispelling myths and diving into the health aspects of this fresh Mediterranean Diet staple, to geeking out on the nuances of flavors, aromas and food pairings. Whether you’re a Michelin star chef or just love food, this channel is for you.
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This may be one of the most debated topics regarding olive oil - which country makes the best extra virgin olive oil?
Truthfully, the answer is quite easy, simply name your country.\
If you're Greek it's Greece, if you're Spanish it's Spain, Chilean? Chile - and so on. Although it seems that that's the way it's always been, it doesn't answer the question.
When it comes to taste, people tend to assume that the choices that they make about the products that they buy and use are always the best ones. And that conviction makes sense because after all these choices are very personal. Some of them can be tied to memories, or where you grew up, or even to a place that you had an amazing vacation. And when it comes to olive oil it's no different.
It seems to be less about how good an oil is and more about loyalty to heritage or a place that you're connected to. And all these sentiments or feelings are fair - but only to a point.
Full disclosure - I'm Italian - and traditionally for most Italians, especially the ones that left the country there's absolutely no doubt that Italy makes the best extra virgin olive oil. And even within Italy, the regions will tell you that they make the best Italian olive oil.
I've struggled with that attitude for most of my life and even with my own family. Today I live in a Greek neighbourhood and in that neighbourhood the consensus is that Greece makes the best extra virgin olive oil.
It's the same for people that have visited, or have ties, or have had olive oil experiences in different countries. They will think that that oil is the best.
So here is the truth: making olive oil is actually very easy.
Just take any olive, in any condition, from any tree, from anywhere in the world. Bring it to any mill and soon after you will get some kind of an olive oil.
It's literally that easy.
But easy doesn't mean good.
Traditionally this is how a lot of olive oil is made around the world. See, it's romantic to think that tradition is synonymous with quality, but there lies the problem because when making a PROPERLY produced extra virgin olive oil there are a million steps and complications to take into consideration. Overlooking any one of these steps can have drastic effects on the quality of the oil.
Extra virgin olive oil is fresh fruit juice. To be precise, it's freshly extracted raw olive juice and when produced from clean and healthy olives that were properly grown, harvested, extracted by a master in a technologically advanced mill, it's alive. It is full of complexity, aroma, and health benefits.
Now, once we've established that basic level of quality, then and only then can we start talking about where an olive oil comes from.
And this is where it gets more interesting - just like we have different varietals of grape in wine like a Sangiovese or a Cabernet, the same is true for olives. In the olive world these varietals are called cultivars and there are about 2000 cultivars in the world - 700 of them in Italy alone.
Why is this important?
Each and every one of these cultivars has their own unique sensory profiles and characteristics - profiles that are highlighted depending on the microclimate and how they were produced.
Where it gets really crazy is that the same cultivar from the same region and even the same tree can have completely different sensory profiles when milled by different producers.
Aroperly produced extra virgin olive oil is a snapshot in time and space. It captures a particular season, in a particular place. it tells the story of a producer, a community, a region, and a country.
It is often the foundation and the finishing touch of a regional cuisine - basically you start with olive oil, and you finish with it.
The saying, "What grows together goes together," has a lot of significance when we're talking about a specific oil, from a specific region, on a specific dish.
It transports you into the groves and the kitchens of these producers, and they are dying to tell you a story. A story that only reaches its climax when that specific oil is paired to the local dish.
So how can we say that one country's olive oil is better than another?
It's like saying that my memories are better than yours - which is nonsense.
I can't argue with your memories from childhood, or from the place that you grew up, or from an amazing vacation, or from an incredible time with family and friends around a meal. But we can't confuse these subjective feelings with objective quality.
So when it comes to olive oil, what is this objective quality?
For starters, it needs to smell good and taste clean. It needs to remind you of freshness, of green, of fruit, of vegetables. Within those parameters there's a wide array of sensory profiles that we won't get into in a lot of detail, but that is the basic start.
I do understand how easy it is to have a subjective view of taste, but I'm lucky enough that as a professional olive oil taster I get to try incredible oils from all around the world and it's amazing to see
how more and more producers are moving away from these traditional methods and embracing objective quality.
Remember, just like we enjoy the differences from year to year in wines or other produce like cherries or strawberries - the differences from year to year in a properly produced extra virgin olive oil are a beautiful thing.
I'm sure you've noticed how I keep saying, "Properly produced." That is the key. From growing, to harvesting, to milling to bottling and even how it gets to your table- all of the steps have to be done right in order for us to enjoy an incredible extra virgin olive oil.
So no, there is no country or region that produces the best olive oil. it's complicated, and that's why people like me become obsessed with it. The best oil can come from anywhere if and only if it's produced properly.
So whether you're from Greece, Lebanon, Turkey, Portugal, Italy, Spain, Chile, Brazil, Japan, and even America - it's a great journey to dive into your country's properly produced extra virgin olive oils and pair them with local dishes.
But please remember that there's a whole world out there to explore. Extra virgin olive oil is about freshness, it's about seasonality, it's about pleasure, it's about health, and it's about the sensory experience that only a properly produced extra virgin olive oil can really give you
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Hey everyone, today we're gonna answer the question, "Can you cook with olive oil?"
Specifically, extra virgin olive oil. Now, if you're looking for the short answer
then yes, absolutely.
If you are already using it then great, and if not, then we're going to find out not only why you can cook with olive oil, but also why you should.
I did a quick Google search to find out what people are saying about cooking with extra virgin olive oil and these are some of the things that I found:
it's fake.
it's carcinogenic.
you can't heat it.
low smoke point equals breathing in toxic smoke.
And there was so much more!
We can all agree that the internet can be as informative as it can be sketchy so let's jump in and see if we can shed some light on this topic.
First off, when it comes to cooking with any oil we need to consider a few things:
the composition - basically what is that oil made out of
is it refined or unrefined - basically is it processed or has it been chemically altered?
and the smoke point - Yes, the smoke point! And how it is not the deciding factor when choosing which oil to cook with.
Let's start with composition, specifically, fat composition because all oils are made out of staturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated fatty acids. People tend to generalize when they talk about
the composition of an oil and tend to put them all into buckets.
For example:
saturated = coconut oil
monounsaturated = extra virgin olive oil
polyunsaturated = sunflower oil.
But it's important not to generalize, because, for example, although extra virgin olive oil is mostly made up of monounsaturated fatty acids it also contains amounts of saturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids. This composition is important because it has a direct effect on how the oil is going to behave when heated and also on our health.
This is a deep topic, but for our purposes today let's just say that chemically speaking saturated fatty acids are the most stable, monounsaturated fatty acids the second most stable, and polyunsaturated fatty acids are the least heat stable. Unfortunately this is where most people
on the internet stop; by concluding that saturated fatty acids are the best ones for cooking.
But this stability is only one side of the equation. There's a whole health aspect to the composition
of an oil that is linked to the other two fatty acids. On one side, where saturated fatty acids give you that heat stability they've also been linked to many cardiovascular diseases, obesity and increasing your LDL or bad cholesterol.
On the flip side, mono and polyunsaturated fatty acids have been linked to many health benefits, including decreasing the risk of heart disease, weight loss, and regulating your cholesterol levels
although they do have different levels of thermal stability. When talking about extra virgin olive oil, you can count on a great balance between health and stability.
Now let's talk about refined vs unrefined. A refined oil, simply put, is an oil that has been refined or processed. It's linked to words like clean, purified or lite. One might refine an oil to increase its
production yield, or to smooth out imperfections or defects to produce the same oil year after year.
An unrefined oil is a natural oil It's an oil that has not been chemically altered or processed retaining all of its natural composition. As such we can't expect that oil to be the exact same year after year.
So, what does this have to do with cooking?
Well, refining an oil usually increases the smoke point and here is again where most people on the internet stop. But I'm going to put my foot down, because smoke point is not the only deciding factor when choosing an oil to cook with.
It's not really about temperature but rather about oxidative stability - meaning how susceptible is an oil to oxidation and how long can you heat the oil before it starts to break down causing real damage.
When choosing an oil, on top of what we've already mentioned, you want to look for an oil that's rich in antioxidant compounds and in extra virgin olive oil these antioxidant compounds are called polyphenols.
These polyphenols tend to neutralize, absorb, and destroy free radicals delaying the natural onset of oxidation and also giving you that extra heat stability boost.
But if we did want to talk about temperature or smoke point, the question is, what are we planning on cooking anyways? I mean, unless you're caramelizing, to deep fry all you need is around 350 Fahrenheit or 176 Celsius. If I'm using extra virgin olive oil the low end of the smoke point range starts at 374 Fahrenheit or 191 Celsius. This gives me plenty of headroom to cook anything that I want.
Plus, it's packed with polyphenols which not only give me that added heat stability but they are also linked to many health benefits.
Now, let's put it all together. If looking at fat composition, if it's refined, or smoke point individually that will not give enough information to determine whether cooking with extra virgin olive oil is a good thing or not. But when we put it all together, it then starts to make sense.
When I choose an oil, I'm looking for an oil that is mostly monounsaturated fatty acids for the health benefits and good thermal stability. I would also look for an oil that is unrefined in order to retain all of its natural benefits and attributes and an oil full of antioxidant compounds forthat health and heat stability boost.
And if you still want to talk about smoke point, I'm looking for an oil that will let me deep fry or cook anything that I want. And since extra virgin olive oil is the only oil that checks all those boxes, to answer the question, then yes, you can cook with extra virgin olive oil.
In fact, you probably should!