You never forget your first olive harvest.  Amongst the rolling Tuscan hillside and lavender morning mist, you find yourself tangled in Sisyphean bundles of netting, fighting off errant tree branches, hoisting mechanical rakes into the air for hours on end.  It is a herculean effort to say the least, often carried out at the humble hands of families, friends, migrants, and local communities striving to balance tradition with innovation and quality with razor thin economics, all while riding the wild wave of mother nature.  So how did I find myself clutching the trunk of an olive tree and gasping for breath while a singing farmer three times my age deftly rolled a cigarette with one hand and maneuvered that damn rake with the other?

The small city of Lucca is an ancient walled town in Tuscany, where my mother’s family originates.  My first visit was at age ten, oblivious to the notion of ‘origin’, yet I felt an immediate affinity for the sights, sounds, and flavors of this piccola città; so much so that I returned a few decades later to make Lucca my home. A career in hospitality had sparked my curiosity for where the food on our plate comes from, so I departed the bustling dining rooms of New York City to study in Italy and Spain, harvesting a few grapes and olives along the way, in search of an understanding of global food systems, local traditions, and the production of olive oil and wine.  What I learned revealed my own misunderstandings and magnified the gap between fact and fiction.

In this hyper-digitalized age we face a near constant deluge of food trends, pseudo-experts, and internet sludge expounding the values of the latest hot market item. Will olive oil shots improve our health?  What are polyphenols and how much do we need? What country makes the best oil? Is the old world way of making food always the best method?  The answers are more nuanced than popular culture would have us believe. 

The good news? I’m here to help navigate the confusion and cut through the noise.  Join me to learn more about the infinitely fascinating world of olive oil past, present, and future.  Gourmands, professionals, and curious palates are all welcome.