An immaculate conception
Going extra virgin at Old Pasadena’s Beyond the Olive
By Dan O'Heron 10/01/2009
While creative Italy has led the world in turning out operas and art, 12 Caesars and plenty of saints, red wines and Venetian blinds, it no longer corners the market in quality olive oil, but shares it reluctantly with California. This is vividly clarified at a new place in Old Pasadena, Beyond the Olive.
“We are a premier source for learning about, tasting and purchasing of California’s high-quality extra virgin olive oil,” said Crystal Reibel who, with husband Chip, owns and operates the specialty shop. “We sell more than 100 types of olive oil — all extra virgin — all produced by some 35 artisanal ranches in California. Each bottle, or bulk order, averaging about $1 per ounce, is designed for the good health of all and the epicurean cooking experiences for some.”
For one very good thing for me, Beyond the Olive has helped reduce my dependency on foreign oil.
For another, it offers exclusively California-grown olives, snob vinegars — nearly all bottled in California — plus beautifully designed olive-related kitchen products. These include a ceramic-swirled dish that a bibbed wise guy in “Godfather” would relish for dipping focaccia after a murder in Queens. (Here, for you good guys, they serve French bread with free olive oil samplings.)
How good is extra virgin California oil? In tasting before purchase, you’ll understand why we no longer hear derisive laughter from Italians — and other Europeans — in comparing our oils with theirs.
Just like in comparing California wines, not to be embarrassed by the demise of hidebound tradition, descendants of a doge in Italy can only laugh these days up their large and flowing sleeves, the Spanish in their beards and the French in their capes.
And, after an article in The New Yorker in 2007, a Greek must cover his face behind a menu: In the piece, Tom Mueller reported that many rusty tankers, with racketeers at the helm, ghosted into European ports and pumped thousands of tons of oil — bills of lading saying “Olive Oil from Greece,” when actually it was hazelnut from Turkey or sunflower oil from the Argentine.
Be wary of supermarket olive oils with labels that read “product of Italy,” said Reibel. “At the back of the bottle it reads ‘may contain olive oil from Spain, Italy and Greece.’ By law here, if it says it is from California, it must be 100 percent California olive oil, produced by olives grown in California.”
In California, great olive crops are as natural as fine oranges and avocados. In recent years, saplings from the same trees you get from the storied hills of Tuscany have been imported by the thousands for ranches in Sonoma County, Napa Valley and San Luis Obispo. And long ago, trees were introduced by Spanish missionaries to coax natives to go to church.
What is “extra virgin” olive oil and what makes it better than plain? “Extra virgin is a grade for olive oil just as AA is a grade for eggs. It is extracted from olives from the first pressing — right after picking — from ripe or ripening olives engorged with oils, without using solvents or chemicals. To keep the name, it must have an acidity level of less than 1 percent. Plain or refined olive oil, said Reibel, often comes from “funky, rotten olives that could be used for burning in lamps.” Ergo, it is made palatable by refining.
Many of the imported extra virgin oils that often have flooded our supermarket shelves — deodorized by refining and passed off by importers as extra virgin — could not be sold as such in Europe, said Reibel, “because they didn’t meet highly regulated standards.” I know the kind: My mother used it to polish furniture. I used it to break in the pocket of my baseball glove.
In what way does California extra virgin surpass its distinguished Italian counterpart?
“It’s the freshness,” said Reibel. “Olive oil, unlike wine, is better when it’s fresh.”
In the Italian process, olives usually tumble through a hopper before they are crushed by two giant stones that stand at the edge and turn slowly and steadily. Then there’s the lengthy processing and shipping. “Here, olives are not pressed at all, but whisked through a centrifuge, a faster and cleaner process.” said Reibel.
Why is California extra virgin olive oil superior to other cooking or garnishing oils? Unlike other oils, which are extracted from the seeds or dried fruits of plants, the pulp of fresh olives gives it a distinctly richer flavor. And, in most cases, olive oil is more healthful — rich in iron, potassium and vitamins.
I
s so-called “extra light” olive oil, purported to have less calories and fat, better for us? “In our dreams,” said Reibel. “Calories and fat are the same, only the flavor is less.”
For the free samplings — among scores of varietals, including citrus-flavored extra virgin oils, which are made by crushing whole fruit and olives together — I’m looking forward to the blood-orange combo. While most olive oils are designed for cooking and dressing, I’m told that with one sip of this, you’ll want another and another, until the bouncer arrives.
For mating with food, I’ll want a big green olive infused with a big clove of garlic. In the oil testings, it’s recommended but not required that you perform the wine connoisseur’s ritual of swirling, sniffing, gurgling, inhaling the fumes (think whistling backwards) and, before swallowing , exhaling the lung-warmed fumes out your nose.
I’d practice before doing it in public for the first time Wine amateurs are often embarrassed by the ritual. I wouldn’t want you, forgive me, to be crushed by the olive experience.
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