BOOKS

Luigi Caricato, L'incanto dell'olio italiano (The enchantment of Italian oil),

Bibliotheca Culinaria; Lodi, April 2001; Pages 120, € 33,50

It's a rare thing to find in a book historical competence, direct experience, the pleasure of telling a tale and scientific, economic and geographic knowledge. The unusual convergence takes place in this book of Luigi Caricato, where oil gets that leading role that in the past used to belong exclusively to wine culture. In this case we discover a whole treasure made of traditions bound to the soil, the plants and the insolation that can compete with vineyard and vines. We will also explore the reasons why Italy is the main oil producer and how this supremacy is threatened if requirements and dangers are ignored.

The title proudly alludes to a legacy that Italy received from Greece, where olive tree made Athena win over Poseidon and became the Queen of Attica. Imported by the settlers, olive emigrated from Aegean to Sicily and South of Italy. For the Roman Empire, olive oil became a basic product both for the diet and the economy. Even with withdrawals and crisis, the ancient heritage is being passed on and enriched until the contemporary age. Now it has to deal with a "non quality" competition: second-rate products with seducing prizes for incompetent and trusting buyers.

Caricato is as vibrant as well informed in unmasking, through detailed analysis, those frauds and alchemies that allow inferior oils to violate the law (and ethics) by deceiving inspections. The strength of his complaint is one of the most significant aspects of this volume because, to exploit a great tradition involves first of all the disclosure of its betrayals. Especially in a time like the one we are now living, where product homologation and the alienation of most typical and highest qualities do not favor the public interest but private speculation of big industrial corporations.

All the more Caricato's suggestive and overwhelming journey through Italian oil regions gets more importance and emphasis. The outcoming variegated and stratified picture reveals an agriculture outlook transformed in civil culture where the history of a production is extended to a whole civilization. This book is therefore ideally addressed to every one: the public, as it is intended, of both trade experts and consumers, which are wider and unpredictable. In this volume all the readers will find surprises, news and acquaintances. And during oil tasting, it will provide you with a pleasure, which brings you to the past, the present and the future at the same time.

Italian text of GIUSEPPE PONTIGGIA

(From introduction)