The ANNOTICO Report
Again our Italian grandmothers knew best. No lard or butter
for them in
their cooking.
The Olive Oil is gaining such stature for not only health
reasons, but
taste, that olive oil 'tastings' are becoming popular.
Fox News
By Michael Y. Park
Friday, May 27, 2005
With Memorial Day weekend finally here, many Americans
are planning picnics
and barbecues — and more than ever before, many of those
salads and veggie
dishes are going to be prepared with olive oil (search).
But this is not the yellow stuff in a can that Mom used
to trot out on
Italian-dinner night. These days, olive oil’s gone top
shelf.
"Olive oils are where wine was 30 years ago," said Ryan
MacDonnell, founder
and owner of Round Pond olive oils (search), in California’s
Napa Valley.
"We have tried to make better olive oils, and people
are responding that
oil doesn’t have to be bland."
For the past 10 years, consumers in the United States
have been using more
and more olive oil, and they have become more discriminating
as well.
In 1994, the U.S. imported 126,000 metric tons of olive
oil, of which some
25 percent was extra virgin -- the premium kind, which
is made in a
chemical-free process that involves only pressure, producing
a natural
level of low acidity.
Extra virgin olive oil is also considered the finest and
fruitiest of the
olive oils, and is therefore the most expensive.
In 2004, America brought in 246,000 metric tons of olive
oil, and nearly
half of that was extra virgin, according to Bob Bauer,
president of the
Neptune, N.J.-based North American Olive Oil Association
(search).
"People just found out about olive oil," he said. "They
used to think it
was just for fancy events or special foods, and people
are finding out it’s
for every day. Once you try it, it’s hard to go back,
because it tastes
good and it’s good for you, too."
Domestic producers are also working feverishly to meet
the demand.
According to the California Olive Oil Council (search),
in Berkeley,
Calif., there has been an average 20-percent increase
since 1996 in
olive-oil production in that state, where almost all
of the U.S.’s olive
oil is made.
In the 2002-2003 year, there were 265,300 gallons of the
extra-virgin
category produced in California. In 2003-2004, the number
jumped to 306,065
gallons. And in 2004-2005, there were 383,050 gallons
of California extra
virgin — a 25 percent increase over the previous year.
"The words ‘extra virgin’ didn’t actually mean anything
to people. Five
years ago, people would come into the store and ask if
we sold tea," said
Rose Malindretos, education and communications manager
for French-based
olive-oil company O & Co. (search)
"It’s about educating the consumers, really changing their
diet," she
added. "Olive oil absolutely is liquid gold. It’s a very
exciting time, and
I can’t wait to see where we are five years from now."
Most say that what has greased palms for olive oil in
America is a boom in
Mediterranean cooking and studies showing the health
benefits of the oil.
In November 2004, the FDA approved claims that the monounsaturated
fats in
olive oil are good for the heart. Chefs at leading cooking
schools were
among the first to catch on.
"Where before a lot of chefs who went to Johnson &
Wales (search)
(University College of Culinary Arts) or CIA (the Culinary
Institute of
America (search)) were always taught to use butter to
start their sautés,
now you’re starting to see standard training use a blend
of butter and
olive oil or just olive oil," said Mark Monaco, director
of catalog and
Internet sales at Philadelphia-based Di Bruno Bros (search).
"We’ve been seeing this type of renaissance over the last
10 years. Now the
home consumer who’s a foodie has multiple styles of olive
oils in their
home," Monaco continued.
Aficionados say the variety of olive oils may help make
it a food craze
like that for wine.
Mario Rizzotti, Italian culinary specialist for Academia
Barilla (search),
an institute founded by the Barilla pasta company to
promote Italian
cuisine, even conducts olive-oil tastings throughout
the U.S., much as a
wine store might do.
"Warm up the glass to release the fruitiness, give it
10 to 15 seconds,
bring it close to the nose and smell it deeply," he said.
"You can smell
almonds, artichokes, turnips, fresh-cut grass, fresh
tomatoes, depending on
the oil. Then sip, twirl the tongue, get it on all parts
of the tongue then
swallow. It should give some pepperiness or bitterness
on the back of the
throat."
Much like wines, oils can taste remarkably different depending
on the types
of olives used, the region and the vintage.
The "it" olive oil of the moment is made by Armando Manni
(search), a
director who worked with scientists the University of
Florence to ensure
that his Tuscan-grown olive oil is as healthy as it is
delicious.
Manni olive oil, the most expensive on the planet with
a price tag of 200
euros (about $252) a liter, is served at the top restaurants
in the world,
including Per Se (search) and Jean Georges (search) in
New York City, and
Thomas Keller’s French Laundry (search), in Yountville,
Calif.
"When we started, we were just a super-niche product,"
Manni said. "We are
also now a super-niche product, but the consciousness
of the people has
grown. There’s a big change in the diet habits of Americans,
a reflection
of the consumer knowledge of health and nutrition.
"There’s less consumption of lard and butter, and organic-foods
sales have
increased by 20 percent since 2003," he added. "Consumers
of organic food
are also great users of extra virgin olive oil instead
of butter."
But the olive-based shockwave that’s sweeping through
restaurants and
kitchens across the nation may already be subsiding at
its epicenter, some
say.
Abbie Scianamblo, of Sorelle Paridiso (search) organic
olive oils in Tulare
Country, Calif., says the market seems to have plateaued.
Sorelle Paridiso has grown between three and seven tons
of olives on their
88 acres every year since they began pressing olives
about five years ago.
"There was an incredible demand about three years ago,
when olive oil was
at its height in California," she said. "Demand has evened
out. There’s a
bit of saturation in the olive oil market."
The slowdown in growth has convinced Scianamblo to move
their business more
into the olives themselves rather than the olive oil.
But fellow Californian MacDonnell was optimistic.
"I don’t see it replacing wine (Napa Valley’s major crop),
but I do see it
continuing to grow," she said. "It’s an untapped market.
I suppose the
butter people can be a little worried."