I remember back in my culinary caveman days when I wasn’t too particular about the details. If a dish called for chicken, carrots, and peas then it didn’t matter what kind of ingredients, as long as they were all there. Then I worked in an upscale restaurant for a while and learned that it’s all in the ingredients as well as the technique. Take a simple thing like chopping cilantro, for example, if you chop it to the point that you see any liquid on the chopping board, then you are losing flavor. The better the food the more subtle the flavor variances can be and the more important the details become. Just ask any great cook and they will tell you so. That’s why two different cooks can prepare the same recipe and they will both come out different. And most upscale restaurants don’t do their shopping at the local supermarket chain either.
Take cooking oils. My mom would cook up a batch of fried chicken using leftover bacon grease or lard from the can that sat on top of the stove. You can’t deny that it tasted great even though it might have been loaded with saturated fat, salt, and calories. Now that I’ve gotten older, I have to be a lot more careful about what, and how much I eat. But I don’t want to give up the flavor of real food. A few years ago, I discovered the pleasures of olive oil. In the past about the only recognition of olives was when I had one in my martini. Now, I rarely cook with anything else.
Olive oil is fruit oil obtained from the olive tree, which is related to the lilac, jasmine, and ash. Most of the world’s olive oil comes from the Mediterranean Basin, with a lot of it grown locally in California here in the United States. The terms surrounding olive oil can be a little confusing, so here is a quick rundown:
Virgin olive oil refers to oil that has been mechanically produced by grinding without the use of any chemicals. Most all of the bottles of oil sold here in the United States is of virgin production. Then we get to the bottle labeling, which is mostly to do withy the quality of the oil. Extra Virgin Olive Oil comes from cold pressing of the olives without any heat. It is usually the most expensive and has the best taste. It has less than 0.8% acidity. Virgin Olive Oil has less than 2% acidity and is judged to have a good taste. Pure Olive Oil is usually a blend of refined and virgin olive oils. Then there are the lesser and much lighter oils, many of which are combined with other types of oil like canola. It can be costly, but I try to keep myself confined to the Extra Virgin and Virgin variety. (www.wikipedia.com)
Recently I read in the Healthy Planet, St. Louis’ eco-friendly and natural health orientated magazine, (www.thehealthyplanet.com) about a store called Extra Virgin: An Olive Ovation. The store has been a hidden gem in Clayton since 1997 and is about all things olive. It is an olive lover’s dream with all kinds of olives from all over the world, 14 different varieties as a matter of fact. They also have a variety of vinegars as well as olive oil soap, olive oil candles, shampoo, conditioner, face cream, lip balm, and hand cream. The second most popular use of olive oil is to tone and moisturize the skin.
The store is located at 143 Carondelet Plaza in Clayton or you can visit their website at www.extravirginoo.com or call 314-727-6464.
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