Extra Virginity: Of Olive Oils Sacred and Profane, and the People Who Make Them - Brossura

Tom Mueller

Brossura

ISBN 10: 1848870051 ISBN 13: 9781848870055

Casa editrice: Atlantic Books, 2012

Riassunto

The best oils are made by authentic artist-craftsmen, who marry centuries-old agricultural wisdom with cutting-edge extraction technology, and now produce the finest oils in history. However, these producers are being steadily driven from the market: extra-virgin olive oil is difficult and expensive to make, yet alarmingly easy to adulterate. Skilled oil criminals are flooding the market with low-cost, faux extra-virgins, reaping rich profits and undercutting honest producers, whilst authorities in Italy, the US and elsewhere turn a blind eye.From the feisty pugliese woman of sixty struggling to keep the family business afloat to her industrialist neighbour who has allegedly grown wealthy on counterfeit oil, to Benedictine monks in Western Australia and poker-playing agriculture barons in northern California who make this ancient foodstuff in New World ways, Mueller distils the passions and life stories of oil producers, and explores the conflict, culinary vitality and cultural importance of great olive oil.

Su questo libro

L'autore:

Tom Mueller lives in Liguria, Italy with his wife and three children. Educated at Oxford and Harvard, he is a frequent contributor to The New Yorker, and also writes for National Geographic Magazine, The New York Times Magazine, and The Atlantic Monthly.

Product Description:

"Extravirginity" is a rich, fluid and evocative account of the history and alchemy of olive oil; and how the finest artisanal oil-manufacturers - rooted in the deep south of Italy - are endangered by the international-wide corruption of the billionaire oil barons who are destroying the reputation of one of mankind's oldest and most versatile products. The best Italian extra-virgins are made by authentic artist-craftsmen, who combine traditional farm wisdom and cutting-edge extraction technology to produce the finest oils in history. Despite the unprecedented quality and popularity of their oils, however, top Italian producers are being steadily driven from the market by fraud. Extra-virgin olive oil is difficult and expensive to make, yet alarmingly easy to adulterate with inferior grades of olive oil, cheap seed and nut oils, or worse. Skilled oil criminals are flooding the market with low-cost, faux extra-virgins, reaping rich profits and undercutting honest producers. Yet the Italian government does little to fight this corruption. "Extravirginity" introduces olive oil's saints and sinners, whose conflicts, over the next decade, will determine the fate of quality olive oil worldwide: a feisty pugliese woman of sixty struggling to keep the family business afloat; her mafiosa neighbour who has grown wealthy on adulterated oil; a terminally-ill manager from Milan who is dedicating his last years to preserving high-quality olive oil; and a Catholic priest in Sicily who harvests olives and makes oil on lands confiscated from Cosa Nostra, despite regular death-threats. "Extravirginity" is rich with classical allusion, with the integral cultural significance of olive oil, and the passion of those who produce it. This book is suitable for readers of "The Orchid Thief", "Liquid Memory", and "Gomorrha".

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Atlantic Books
• Data di pubblicazione: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1848870051
• ISBN 13: 9781848870055
• Rilegatura: Copertina flessibile
• Numero di pagine: 256