Is it possible to drink 18 cups of olive oil in one day?

We set out to find out today, arriving at the St. Helena (Napa Valley) campus of the Culinary Institute of America, known to foodies as the CIA.  Not that CIA.  Although we were told that the culinary version predates the spy version by a few years and rightly claims the acronym.  We were told, too, of the similarities between the two organizations.  They both use knives and they both keep secrets.  At lest when Dick Cheney is not outing them.  (We have it on good word that Scooter Libby leaked the recipe to McDonald’s secret sauce to the press.  Talk about a weapon of mass destruction!).

We arrived early in the morning at the CIA’s Greystone Lodge, an enormous stone building that was obviously something big and important before becoming the west coast center of the American cooking scene.   Something important like an insane asylum.

After being seated in the amphitheater-like lecture room together with a hundred other devotees of nature’s loveliest, most sublime, healthy liquid fat – olive oil, and specifically extravirgin olive oil – each participant being provided a cafeteria tray covered with a paper placemat with numbered silhouette circles over which were placed plastic jello cups filled with a couple tablespoons of various olive oils, and realizing that these samples were for tasting, perhaps the insane asylum metaphor was appropriate.  (Apologies for the run-on sentence.  An hour after the class I’m suffering slight olive oil withdrawal symptoms).  For an entire day, from 9am until 6:30pm we heard from experts in the field – producers who literally came from the field, chefs, writers and journalists, distributors, retailers and wholesalers about the state of the world of extravirgin olive oil.  And it is a story full of complexity, intrigue and, ultimately, incredible taste and potential.

The message from the day?  It would be hard to single out one thing.  But it is clear that the American market is in its infancy with regard to its understanding, appreciation and use of extravirgin olive oil.  But we need not fret our inferiority.  Even in Italy and Spain, the world’s largest producers and consumers of olive oil, misinformation and ignorance are widespread, too.  But it was refreshing to see professionals and passionate amateurs come together to grapple with how to make extravirgin olive oil assume its rightful place in our kitchens, on our plates and in our hearts.

More on the specifics later.  If you’ll excuse me now, I have to go drink a pint of balsamic to complete me.

Ci vediamo!

Bill and Suzy