Just several days before the end of the olive harvest, Beatrice Peruzzi, the founder of Bertarello olive oil, shows FDL.com around the 18th Century ex-watchtower she lives in, perched in the midst of an ancient olive grove. «We began making olive oil almost by accident,» she explains, although she comes from a long line of farmers and cultivating the countryside is in her genes.
Peruzzi explains how over time, the process and timing has changed, with the harvest taking place much earlier in the year and, therefore, a much lower production than in times past.
Why is Bertarello oil made from olives picked just at the moment before ripening? Because picking the olives while they are still green, just before changing colour, means that the oil -- though there will be less of it – will be much higher in anti-oxidant properties than oil from more mature olives.
Another quality that makes Bertarello oil stand out in taste and quality, is that the olives are pressed within six hours of being harvested. Which makes the oil particularly valuable and makes Peruzzi, a woman who claims to be “impatient”, extremely excited when she brings her crates to the mill, twice in a day, and comes home with her giant flasks of oil.
From pampered pooches to a man who ate a full English breakfast every day, chef Harriet Mansell's stories about life as a chef on board superyachts are jaw-dropping. But the gig enabled the ex-Noma chef to save enough money to open her own restaurant. Read her amazing story here.
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