For the restaurant and B&I foodservice chef extra virgin olive oil is a kitchen pantry staple known for its health benefits, versatility, and the rich flavor that is associated with it. Unknowingly, they may be purchasing extra virgin olive oil with defects, that has spoiled, or even worse, that should be used for soap.
Soap? What? In his book “Extra Virgin Olive Oil: The Truth In Your Kitchen”, David Neuman hopes to educate the consumer on what quality extra virgin olive oil should taste like so they can enjoy a higher standard of culinary experience and not be fooled by mislabeled brands.
David Neuman’s 35-year career has taken him on a journey throughout North America. After working in Washington, DC throughout the 80’s and 90’s for Sutton Place Gourmet & Whole Foods Markets, he moved on to Natures Path Organic Cereals in Vancouver, Canada as Executive Vice President of marketing and global sales for the next ten years. His experience in natural and specialty foods led him to take a position as president of Lucini Italia Olive Oil Company in Miami in 2006, and this is when he first became interested in quality olive oil. However, for the first five years of his career at Lucini, he had limited experience in the world of olive oil. “From 2006 to 2011 as I am president of Lucini, my direction from the founders was “don’t worry about the olive oil, worry about the business”. At the same time, I was responsible for our supply side in Italy,” said Neuman.
By 2011, Neuman realized that he needed to learn more to successfully grow the Lucini Italia Olive Oil brand. He decided to attend ONAOO (Organizzazione Nazionale Assaggiatori Olio di Oliva), an international accredited Olive Oil Tasting school in Italy (the oldest) that has trained over 15,000 olive oil tasters. By 2018, he graduated as a professional panel taster and must keep his accreditation each year by returning to Italy for a refresher where he samples olive oil from around the northern hemisphere. He is required to taste the cultivar and the intensity of its attributes as well as defective oils, their intensities and causation of the defects. “If you can believe it, I ran a big olive oil company for five years and did not know what attributes and defects were”, he continued.
Neuman’s on-going commitment to education has enabled him to develop an Expert Taster’s level of understanding of what makes great Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Attributes refer to fruitiness, bitterness, and pungency of varying degrees and according to the USDA law, can only be validated by a human tasting panel in order to be labeled as extra virgin olive oil. Extra virgin cannot contain a single defect, under 2.5 defect is considered virgin, above 2.5 is considered Lampante (lamp oil translated) and is used for soap. Defects can be caused by improper handling of the olive oil, HALT (Heat, Air, Light, Time), or grubby, caused by the olive fly that will burrow into the olive and create a particular taste and aroma rendering the oil defective.
So how do the attributes and defects of olive oil effect the US chef and foodservice professional? According to Neuman, “most of these bottlers do not think the American consumer cares about defects so they put defective oil in a bottle and call it extra virgin”. The USDA standard is voluntary, so it is up to producers to properly bottle and label the oil. The end result is the majority of olive oil that is sold in America is maliciously bottled defective or was at one-point extra virgin and has been handled improperly during transportation and has now become rancid. With California only producing 5% of our domestic need, we will always need to import olive oil with Spain, Greece, and Italy being the top three exporters.
The foodservice chef has a tougher issue than the consumer. The variety of bulk quantity extra virgin olive oil for purchase is limited. Chefs are trained when it comes to produce, meat, and seafood purchases but do not have sensory training to determine the quality of the olive oil they are purchasing and could unknowingly be ripping off their customers. “I’ve gone to Michelin Star restaurants where they serve completely rotted Lampante olive oil with $100 euro dinners”, said Neuman. When he has approached food service groups and asked who does their in-house evaluation, they almost always have a purchasing agent or chef in charge of orders. Neuman says that “When I taste the oils that they buy and sell, they are almost always bad.”
With 20 years managing big brands, 3 years as a consultant, and owning his own tasting business and brand, Neuman believes his book can change all of this. “My book, which is very easy to read, solves the problems for the trade and solves the problems for consumers. The book will help anyone in the trade, not just consumers, understand the depth of the problem because unless you learn how to smell and taste olive oil you will always be taken advantage of,” Neuman concluded.
Neuman’s book, “Extra Virgin Olive Oil – The Truth In Your Kitchen”, is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble among others, and sold wholesale by the case to the trade at his web site: www.evooguy.com. This is a must read for the professional chef and restaurateur.
