Article by David Cánovas Williams, from Spain Gourmetour magazine.  Photos below by Toya Legido and Tomás Zarza ©ICEX.

There’s nothing new under the sun, especially if we’re talking about one of the world’s most ancient fruits–extra virgin olive oil. But recent technical advances and the inventiveness of a group of young Spanish chefs have subjected this age-old product to all manner of interpretations, and new creations with olive oil take our taste buds to territories both familiar and unknown, but always along unexplored paths. The actual role of olive oil is undergoing a metamorphosis. From being the guest of honor in salads, fried foods and cooked dishes, it now often features as the star ingredient and is preparing to steal the show in the 21st century.

Dani Garcia’s Palomita de Aceite de Oliva con Tomate Raf

Just as modern aircraft took their inspiration from the flight of birds, at the end of the 1990s Martín Berasategui dared to break the rules, taking his inspiration from local customs. This three-Michelin-star chef was interested to learn that in some parts of Provence in France, people used to place olive oil in the fridge so that it could then be spread on bread like butter. His curiosity about the physical changes in oil led him to devise a new recipe, now a classic: olive oil ice cream.

When the time is ripe for a new idea, history always makes sure there is someone who can put it into effect. That was more or less what happened at Lúculo, the first creative cuisine eatery in Madrid. Hundreds of miles from Berasategui’s restaurant in the Basque Country and almost 15 years earlier, the young Angel García was experimenting with vegetable sorbets when he decided to start including extra virgin olive oil. “Now sorbets are made of all sorts of things, but at Lúculo we were the true pioneers. Sorbet can’t be made with water because it goes hard as a rock. Extra virgin olive oil sorbet was born because we were keen to replace the cream and butter with olive oil to get a creamier texture.” It was 1984 and his restaurant was producing sorbets with tomato, green pepper, celery… Like Berasategui, Angel García used these sorbets as a garnish for savory dishes: gazpacho, cold soups such as cream of white beans, and carpaccios.

Chef Dani García
Dani García holds up a siphon. Before him is a smoking container of liquid nitrogen. He has just sprayed olive oil over a gas at -195ºC (-319 ºF). Seconds later, he extracts tiny golden pearls: it’s his famous olive oil semolina. This is pure virgin olive oil but it doesn’t leave behind a single trace of fat on the palate.

But liquid nitrogen is not the only way in which this young Andalusian chef has put extra virgin olive oil to the test. In a radical move, Dani García decided to focus on the other temperature extreme: frying. At Casa Joaquín, Encarnación Godoy fried whole fish in such a way that the scales acted as a ready-made papillotte. So the skin fried while the flesh, which is separated from it by a layer of air, cooked in its own juices. The effect is surprising as the fish blows up like a balloon and floats on the surface of the oil.

Dani García decided to adopt this technique with large fish. Sole and turbot were the first candidates for this treatment at 182ºC (359.6ºF) and the result was so positive that they were included on Calima’s menu.

A Matter of Consistency

In addition to Dani García, the seminar ‘Andalusian cuisine and olive oil in the 21st century’ also featured Paco Roncero, one of Ferran Adrià’s star pupils who is making his mark today on the cuisine at La Terraza del Casino in Madrid. “I chose another path, that of gellifiers, thickeners, etc. That was what elBulli was doing at the time.”

Chef Paco Roncero
Oriol Castro, Ferran Adrià’s right-hand man, explains some of the research being done over the last few years. “Not only did we work with oil texturized by cold treatment, as in 1999 we developed butter based on this technique, but we also focused on thickeners. In 2006, we created an extra virgin olive oil caviar using alginate, a thickener made from seaweed. We are also carrying out spherification with olive water. Spherification results in an olive-sized mouthful that contains the water from a dozen olives”.

After seeing how some of these techniques were being applied in the elBulli workshop, Roncero decided to work on a specific line of research. His first creation was the extra virgin olive oil gum drop. “The process is perfectly simple. First you make a syrup with sugar and mix in the olive oil. Then you add a sheet of gelatin and leave it to cool. When we did this hot, the sugars separated from the oils, so we decided to use a mayonnaise technique.”