Thinkspiration
Creativity in the kitchen should not be sacrificed to the altar of health. But health should be prioritised before money, even in fine dining. So let's start talking FACTS about FATS.
Gone is the time when “nothing tastes better than thin”. Do you remember Kate Moss? We don’t either, do not worry.
My readers, think instead that nothing tastes better than a healthy, nutritious, complete meal. A meal that is beautifully presented and packed with taste but also, that is not loaded with salt and nasty ingredients.
Because we know it, even in the starriest kitchens there are ugly shortcuts that the chefs and their brigade use to enhance flavour, textures and colours. Or did you think it was just fast-food loading their creations with salt and flavour enhancers?
We collectively do not want any of those.
Does this make creating high-end cuisine harder? Of course. But when you think about the price you’re willing to pay for a plate, you also want to factor in your health.
Excess smoke is cancerous. Excess salt is abominable. Excess sugar is a plague. Excess fat is unpalatable (safe for the French). The use of unhealthy oils and fats and thickeners is a mistake we have to counter.
With this on our minds, we will search for haute healthy cuisine. The types of plates we look for? They could well be in a health clinic and our conscious homes. And yet, they are available for us to consume as meals in high-end restaurants.
Ok. Where do we start?
The philosophy of good eating
We need to start going back to the basics and to the ingredient. Embracing a real nose-to-tail philosophy, even for what entails vegetables: by using a more diverse variety we can increase biodiversity and fight monocultures, and by rediscovering ancient varieties we bring back to life flavours and textures. Ugly vegetables like roots, leafy greens that aren’t fashionable like kale, and humble vegetables such as potatoes - as long as they are in season.
One very important and overlooked piece of culinary creation is the usage of fats. Fats are used in almost all preparations: butter to plump a cake, tallow fat to fry potatoes, vegetable oils in industrially processed food, lard to envelop meat, or olive oil to do everything, even just to toss a salad (I am heavily simplifying, the list could go on and on, especially with olive oil).
Fat is paramount.
Fat is so important that is one of the macronutrients together with proteins and carbs. So important that we have developed recipes around it, and whose influence in the recipe is different based on the type of fat used in it.
And yet, fat is very much overlooked and the first culprits are the chefs.
Fat is a highly perishable ingredient: an open bottle of extra virgin olive oil lasts just a couple of weeks before spoiling, and butter can turn to camembertesque nuances if left unattended too long. Freezing surplus is an option, and frequent use is another.
We will start our journey into olive oil.
Extra virgin one.
A tale about olive oil
Imagine you are in the Mediterranean. The cradle of Greek-Roman civilisation.
The cradle of the production of extra virgin, and virgin olive oil. You go for lunch to a plushy restaurant, a Michelin awarded one, or a simple but genuine eatery.
What do you expect?
For sure, beautiful plates and cutlery, perhaps fine linen tablecloths and napkins. Also beautiful crystal glasses, perhaps Josephinehutte or Zalto if the place is a wine-loving one. You expect a well-disposed waiter, sommelier and FOH staff, bringing you a menu written on luxurious paper and beautiful lettering, perhaps even a book or a tablet with the hopefully enticing wine list.
In some cases, especially in those more French-oriented spaces, you can eye a little cart packed with cheeses, and almost instantly dream of the glorious moment at the end of a meal when this tiny pleasure machine will roll towards you, filling any last space in your stomach with cheese.
But hardly ever will you see a selection of olive oils - local, national, and international, that could even be compared to the wine ones.
I remember my surprise in BarFM in Granada (not a bar, more like a very chic seafood place that looks like an ordinary bar) when the first thing that rolled towards us was a waiter with a basked and a selection of EVOOs.
Magnificent.
And the only example I’ve found.
Is the olive oil used in the kitchen and served as couvert less important than wine? Don’t we put both in our mouths and shouldn’t both be excellent?
Why do I have the feeling that in many places, olive oil and precious butter are substituted with industrially produced fats, that are slathered on very expensive ingredients in the kitchen?
I have this feeling because in general Chefs do not know very much about this specifically Mediterranean ingredient and food they serve: extra virgin olive oil. And no, very few are to be considered true connoisseurs of this ingredient and food.
We are literally surrounded by olive trees and we use olive oil in every homestead but in professional cuisines, there is generally very little care for it, or attention to the type of oil, its status and quality, and shortcuts are found.
Olive oil is PARAMOUNT.
If you have the possibility, travel to the heart of the world’s olive oil production (Jaén, Spain) and sit at the restaurant of Chef Pedro Sanchez (Bagà, Michelin starred, Repsol sunned) who is making magic with olive oil.
He will teach you the importance of using excellent quality olive oil, the latest vintage, and the importance of properly storing it.
Andalusia is magical, they even fry potatoes and fish in EVOO, which is one of the main reasons food in this area is so damn delicious.
A few years younger than Pedro and very many kilometres farther east, Chef Andrea Leali of Casa Leali on the Garda Lake is another EVOO scholar and culinary magician. His world-famous lemon risotto gets a final touch with this liquid gold, harvested just around his restaurant and pressed into one of the best olive oils I’ve ever had the chance to taste.
So here it is.
A call to you, the customer. And the writer, of course.
This is a market-driven economic system so the power is in your hand: but you have to come out of a passive stance and take an active one when you sit at the table.
Of course, the following is only applicable to those establishments that serve Mediterranean cuisine of any kind.
Nordic and French, Asian and African and Creole and Mexican and so on are excluded because these cuisines do not rely on olive oil as the main fat of choice.
At a fine dining restaurant, be exigent. First thing first, when the sommelier asks about wines, you ask back about their EVOO list, and when they’ll say they only have one olive oil (maybe), please do look very disappointed. If you know enough, take some time to politely lecture the sommelier about the importance of olive oil, and of their vintages. Tell them that bad olive oil is like bad wine: it ruins a meal.
Marco Leali, who is the Sommelier of Casa Leali and works alongside his Chef brother Andrea, is adamant I’m considering olive oil as important and relevant as wine. And by the size of his cellar, you could blindly trust him in whipping up a perfect pairing with wine and oil alike.
He agrees with me. At a place that has some sophistication but no stars, be equally inquisitive.
At a humble eatery where supermarket oil is displayed, politely manifest your discontent. Tell the waiters why olive oil is important. Educate them one by one. They work 12h per day, you have the luxury of taking time to read, taste, and enjoy. You do though, and you can further your education and improve the usage of olive oil in cuisine.
Do your part.
Demands drive the market. Be (politely) demanding.
Being located in Portugal, at home, we cook with Extra Virgin Olive Oil. The word Olive oil comes from the Arabic vocabulary “az-zait” which means “olive juice”.
Irresistible.
Once the bottle has been opened for a long time, we use this oil to stir fry or deep fry. In some recipes, we cook with butter, especially if they are inspired by arteries-clogging recipes by Alain Passard.
Our preferred choice in terms of Portuguese EVOO used to be Cabeço das Nogueiras olive oil. In Italy back at home in the Dolomites, I like to use the 46° Parallelo Monovarietal.
But my heart went to Casa Leali’s own blend of EVOO, and the other oils they choose. The Garda Lake is an incredible terroir for growing olive oil. The most northern one in the whole Mediterranean, just a couple of kilometres from the Dolomites.
And now, you’re hungry like me and craving a recipe.
Try this personal homage to Bagá’s recipe: take one thick slice of homemade bread, which can be sourdough or those ancient loaves cooked in a wood oven.
Toast it crunchy.
Drizzle it with spectacular extra virgin olive oil. Melt some dark chocolate over it (for example, grate some leftover Easter egg or something like that), or use a luscious chocolate spread of high quality like Venchi.
Top it off with some freshly grated orange zest.
Enjoy.
There was a lovely small chain in Massachusetts. You sat down, and they brought you a bread basket of excellent rolls, a plate of olive oil festooned with parmesan. I could never replicate it - unknown to me I wasn't buying the right EVOO or cheese. Ingredients matter.
I would totally love to be offered a selection of oils to try for my salad or bread or whatnot. Brilliant.
So much here I was unaware of. Thank you for this piece. I always appreciate your insights.