The culinary revolution of a legendary product
Spain has become in recent decades an oil power and leads the global market in olive oil.
In Mallorca, about 600 growers following the designation/denomination of origin and more than 46 marketed brands realize the enormous vitality of a sector that has managed to reinvent itself under the banner of the highest quality as a flag.
There are few products that maintain an identity as constant as the oil over the centuries: it is not likely that Roman wines were eligible for modern palates. Oil on the other hand were, we can still read the old medieval treaties that differentiate among the fragrant green olive oils, or the golden and sweet from the mature. We bring to our palates the same flavours that Socrates, Julio Cesar and Leonardo da Vinci appreciated. Olive oil has not changed because you should not change what is perfect. It is the only oil in the world that can be consumed without any chemical or industrial process of refining. It is therefore a strictly natural product, but above all it is the most characteristic and authentic product of the Mediterranean lands.
In Mallorca, as in numerous islands of the Mediterranean from Sicily to Cyprus passing through Crete, the cultivation of olives and the oil production are deeply-rooted agricultural activities. Formerly, it was customary for the workers of the tafones to eat tosted bread embedded in oil «novell»newly extracted an exquisite turbid juice, unfiltered stand. Century after century the ceremony is repeated and November is the time for oil producers to live the decisive moment that means to pick the fruit of work throughout the year, with the hope of achieving a high quality oil.
Olive Oil is Trendy
From the more austere tables to the Olympus of the Michelin stars.
It is a telluric gesture, rooted in our collective unconscious, lost in the mists of time, to meet in Majorca «to make a Pa amb oli (Bread and oil)» is something that the mallorcans have printed in their genes. Simply Pa amb Oli, literally bread with oi, l is and will be our culinary identity, our national dish, daily rite, as austere as slices of bread Payés scrubbed with tomatoes, salt and olive oil. Mallorcan olive oil recio flavor, with an astringent touch and a spicy after taste accompanied by a few «broken» green olives and a good red wine, shows us once again that thrift is compatible with the most high gastronomic pleasure.
It is surprising that so far all the richness of the Virgin olive oil not has been used by restorers. How is it possible that until recently, even in good restaurants, an aged oil in anonymous containers was presiding the tables? Is it not curious that in the same way that a wine list with multiple offers brands and vintages exists, a similar offer for tasting olive oils from different backgrounds is not existing? Like gastronomy is rich when cooking with oils contributing to flavours and nuances to food – it’s a heresy frying delicious «esclatasangs» or fresh Mediterranean fish with common oil – the quality cuisine has reached to a point of no return where the non-use of first quality olive oils is unthinkable.
In this resurgence of Mallorca Virgin olive oils the new Mallorcan Chefs have influenced significantly. This new generation of young and restless chefs, many of them from the quarry of the Escola d’ hotels, which have managed on its own merits to hold a Michelin star, have been the top prescribers of oils produced in Mallorca. They have reinvented the culinary possibilities to make it essential in the charts of the best restaurants on the island and have released to the lovers of good food around a range of sensations thanks to the liquid gold of Mallorca.
If in addition, the increase in their consumption helps the difficult sustainability and conservation of the beautiful scenery of terraces of stone that excite our visitors when they come to the Serra de Tramuntana, the gastronomy will have contributed to the economic viability of the farms and the maintenance of the more authentic and natural Mallorca which is now in the Antipodes of the vulgar tourism, sun and beach.