Why Italians Love to Talk About Food (8 page)

 

*
English translations not otherwise credited are mine. —
A.M.A
.

Like other Mediterranean countries, Italy has based its economy and culture on the olive. The copious literature analyzing the relationship between this Mediterranean crop and the psychology, history, and religion of the peninsula is enriched each year by new materials on the subject issued on the occasion of important national conventions and acclaimed exhibitions. Every November the Expo dei Sapori and the Salone dell'Olio are held in Milan, the latter organized by the Associazione Nazionale Città dell'Olio (National Association of Olive Oil Cities) for olive oil samplers from all over the world. The exposition, financed by the Ministry for Agricultural and Forestry Policies, dedicates specific space to the production of oils bearing the Denomination of Protected Origin (DOP: Denominazione d'Origine Protetta), the preeminent Italian oils. On the last Sunday of November the Pane e Olio in Frantoio (Bread and Oil at the Oil Press) is held, an event that spans hundreds of Italian piazzas, offering samples of the new oil, homemade bread, and regional specialties, as well as visits to the oil presses. Particularly tempting is the display Olioliva holds at the same time in Imperia. In February, National Oil Week takes place simultaneously in Siena, Puglia, Milan, and Rome. Verona welcomes the International Olive Oil Salon each year. In June, Archeolio opens in Sicily: a world of taste in a sea of oil, with professional development courses for specialists and numerous stands for lovers of Mediterranean cuisine, based on olives and olive oil. Also in June, the exposition Bimboil is held in Rome. The list of venues and expos is endless.

By Alexey Pivovarov / Prospekt

Prospekt is a Milan-based independent photo agency representing photojournalists based in Milan, Rome, Paris, London, Istanbul, Berlin, and New York. Prospekt photographers work on European and international news and features. Founded in early 2005 and directed by the photographer Samuele Pellecchia, Prospekt aims to produce surveys and reports bringing out of the value of each photographer's identity.

As we know from art and from classical literature, Italy inherited the cult of olive oil from ancient Rome, which had in turn borrowed it from Greece, where the olive had a prominent presence in mythology. This cult had always been linked to agriculture, to the cultivation and ennoblement of land by man.

The Romans, like the Greeks, did not view virgin nature in a positive light. In their system of values, nature in its primitive aspect was the negative antithesis of civilization (
civitas
) and of the city (
urbs
)—that is, of the order created by man, who should aspire to distinguish himself from nature. The plowed field (
ager
) and the garden (
hortus
) thus stood in positive contrast to virgin nature (the
saltus
). This is confirmed, for example, in Cicero's speech in defense of Sextus Roscius, where the orator speaks explicitly about two contrasting attitudes toward rural life: “But I have myself known many men (and so, unless I am deceived, has every one of you) who are inflamed of their own accord with a fondness for what relates to the cultivation of land, and who think this rural life, which
you think ought to be a disgrace to a charge against a man, the most honorable and the most delightful.” Such a system of values had been affirmed since the times “when men were sent for from the plough to be made consuls,” that is, recruited from their agricultural labors.
¹
Virgil describes it this way in the
Georgics
:

 

The farmer has been ploughing the soil with curving blade: it's his year's work, it's sustenance for his little grandsons, and his country, his herds of cattle and his faithful oxen.
²

 

Classical texts tell us that grain, the vine, and the olive were the three pillars for Greeks symbolizing religious worship and the wealth of material culture. The Romans inherited this wealth and these values from Greece both on a metaphysical level and on a practical culinary level, transmitting the tradition of olive oil to their Italian descendants.

Oil unifies Italy like a national flag. Since 1994 the National Association of Olive Oil Cities, with headquarters in Monteriggioni, has appointed certifiers and tasters in an attempt to uphold the unblemished honor of this “gastronomic emblem” of Italy. Operating in the chambers of commerce of the main cities of the Association (Genoa, Savona, Imperia, Spoleto) are committees of tasters (called panels, American-style, for some reason) that ensure the quality of the olive oil. During the period of olive harvesting these experts, who train all year to be in their best form at the beginning of the season, taste every producer's oil once a week. The tasters, who do not drink or smoke and never use spicy condiments, are called upon to react mainly to three possible defects of the newly pressed oil: mold, acidity, and overheating. Mold needs no explanation. An acidic odor is passed on to the oil if the cask has been rinsed with alcohol or vinegar and has not been properly dried before pouring in the oil. Overheating occurs when the olives, left in heaps after picking, remain stationary for a long time without being stirred. If kept improperly for a long time, the olives spoil and begin to produce heat, and the oil becomes rancid.