Page 2 - Food Service Magazine March 2019
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JURMANPTSTART
SIGNATURE INGREDIENTS
country – a small and highly aromatic olive that, when crushed, yields a very fruity oil, which is quintessential to almost every local dish.
Curto relies on Spanish olive oil for most of his food, whether the oil is used in the cooking process or kept fresh and raw.
“Almost all of [Epocha’s dishes] use olive oil,” says Curto. “For
a week, we go through 18 or 20 litres. All the olive oil doesn’t go to the plate, sometimes it’s used
to marinate, sometimes it’s used attheend,andweuseittofrythe potatoes for our steak tartare. I like to fry [potatoes] in olive oil to have a different flavour.”
Olive oils are graded by how the olives are processed, and the level of oleic acid in the finished product. Extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) is the highest quality
of oil and has a sought-after
slight bitterness and highly floral f lavour. EVOO is nothing but the liquid that oozes out when olives are crushed, without heat or additives. Regular olive oil is a pale lemony-yellow, and contains about four per cent oleic acid, while EVOO must contain less than one per cent. The Australian Olive Oil Association (AOOA) adheres to stringent criteria
laid down by the International Olive Council (IOC) to test oils and provide certifications for
true EVOOs, so regardless of
the product’s origin, with this certification you can be sure of what you’re ordering.
The oil that finishes a dish should be a flavoursome EVOO. Like adding a grind of pepper
or a squeeze of lemon, olive oil brightens each ingredient and adds more “fragrance” to a dish, says Curto.
“I finish all of my dishes with a fruity olive oil: fish, meat, everything. We do a rack of lamb, and even after I put the sauce on I put a little bit of olive oil.”
This article was produced by foodservice in partnership with MORO.
SPANISH-BORN, MELBOURNE-BASED CHEF GERARD CURTO HAS OLIVE OIL IN HIS VEINS. IN HIS KITCHEN AT EPOCHA IN CARLTON, SPANISH OLIVE OIL IS USED IN ALMOST EVERY DISH. ALEKSANDRA BLISZCZYK SPOKE TO THE CHEF ABOUT WHY THIS GOLDEN LIQUID IS SO SPECIAL TO HIM.
F
butter is the hallmark of central French food, olive oil is on plates throughout the Mediterranean.
Gerard Curto, head chef at Melbourne’s Epocha, hails from Sant Carles de la Ràpita, a small village on the north-east coast of Spain, where olive oil is one of the most ubiquitous ingredients.
“I grew up with olive oil. We were doing French recipes we were changing the butter for olive oil – that was the personal taste of my mum, she didn’t like the
f lavour of the butter,” says Curto.
at is an integral element to a dish, so the type of fat
you use is crucial. Just as
Spain produces 44 per cent
of the world’s olive oil annually – twice as much as Italy. Spanish oils have a distinctly clean, fruity and nutty flavour, while Italian oils are usually stronger, and more grassy.
In Spanish food, olive oil is everywhere. It’s smeared on toast with crushed tomato as a snack; it’s used to pan-fry fish; it’s drizzled over bowls of gazpacho, and baked into cakes.
One of Curto’s favourite dishes as a child was a traditional Catalonian dessert called pastisset – an empanada-shaped pastry made with almond flour, sugar and olive oil, and filled with spiced pumpkin that’s
been caramelised in a pan. “My grandma was cooking this at home with olive oil,” he says.
Curto began his career with an internship at El Bulli in Roses, Catalonia, which has been named best restaurant in the world at the World’s 50 Best five times.
“At El Bulli they find all the crazy ways to [use] olive oil. They make a spherification of olive oil that’s a ball, kind of
an egg yolk, that explodes with olive oil when you put it in
your mouth,” he says. “I learned as well how to make a good marinade with olive oil... In El Bulli it looks like everything is really molecular, but some of the things were really traditional that they just adapt.”
Catalonia is Arbequina
PHOTOGRAPHY: KRISTOFFER PAULSEN


































































































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