Editorial
For many years now I have been highlighting the health benefits of extra virgin olive oil, of which the general public seems to be mostly unaware. I have written a book on this subject, edited by Tecniche Nuove, and have been organizing for the last seven years the […]
Is it still possible to invent something new? To amend and remodel existing things and ideas, or possibly even to radically reformulate them?I believe it is. Innovation runs after us and we cannot escape our fate. It is in our DNA, on the other hand, to strive to […]
There is a European oil producer, the nationality of whom I choose to conceal, who has a name for bottling and selling excellent extra virgin olive oil. Recently this person tweeted a message that gives us pause for thought. I quote the tweet as it was posted, without […]
In the novel Le città invisibili (Invisible cities) by Italian author Italo Calvino there is a passage providing what is in my opinion, an excellent portrayal of the concept of enterprise innovativeness. “Marco Polo describes a bridge, stone by stone. ‘But which is the stone that supports the […]
Labels can be helpful, because they provide useful and important information, but they are not as fondamental as we are often led to believe. Too much emphasis is placed on the almost salvific role of labels in protecting the consumers, but it is time to stop endorsing such […]
Nowadays we are witnessing a new trend: comparing olive oils, examining their attributes and features to rank their overall quality. There is nothing wrong with this, as long as this sort of appraisal is carried out in a straightforward and scrupulous manner. The most common mistake, often concealing […]
Even the American Oil Chemists’ Society (and this is by no means a negligible thing) devoted an article on the “60 minutes” report on oil televised by CBS. I saw it. It was full of the usual stereotypes on Italians, who, it appears, can only communicate by screaming […]
The conference on climate change that took place in Paris from November 30th to December 12th, 2015, ended with the French Minister for Foreign Affairs presiding over the meeting striking the gavel against the sound block and claiming that “a small mallet that can do great things”. The […]
Ever since I started working in the prestigious Institute of Biochemistry at the University of Bologna, I have been trying to understand and keep abreast with all the trends and fads in the field of nutrition. Back in those days, we were already witnessing the denigration of cholesterol, […]
The oil-restaurant combination would appear to be a sure bet, but it is not always so. Although olive oil appeals enormously to the consumer, professional caterers, for some seemingly unknown reason, greatly underestimate its importance, and what is most disappointing, they pay no attention to its countless facets […]
High-altitude oils, namely those obtained from olive trees growing on hill- and mountain sides, which are therefore quite difficult to tend, have high production costs, and in this respect they are similar to those made from olives growing on centuries-old, tall trees. In Italy they are a significant […]
Carlo Petrini (Slow Food) and Oscar Farinetti (Eataly) speak about farmers as if they were a world apart, needing protection. But their real intention is to align them in their “troops”. They were the last “coldirettiani” in the world (note of Olio Officina Globe for the reader: Coldiretti […]
On May 1, we celebrate International Workers’ day. For many of the younger generation however, this holiday has no real meaning. It is a day celebrating work, but many people have either lost their job or have yet to find it. To have never worked, or to be […]
Exactly: we have been caught off guard. We are incapable of dealing with all the problems that have been plaguing Europe for a number of years now, the countless migrants reaching our shores and the hundreds, if not thousands of deaths at sea, which continue to fill us […]
The oil-restaurant combination would appear to be a sure bet, but it is not always so. Although olive oil appeals enormously to the consumer, professional caterers, for some seemingly unknown reason, greatly underestimate its importance, and what is most disappointing, they pay no attention to its countless facets […]
My in-laws are from Monopoli, a town in northern Puglia, Italy. After getting engaged to my future wife, 26 years ago, I got into the habit of bringing them bottles of extra virgin oil from various production areas, some of which were real rarities. However, their opinion about […]
