Introduction
Of all the cultural models of healthy, sustainable plant-forward dietary patterns and food systems, the heavily researched traditional Mediterranean Diet stands out for the inspiration it offers to American, Northern European and other global audiences. At the heart of Mediterranean food cultures is the olive oil kitchen. In this white paper, “Olive Oil and the Plant-Forward Kitchen,” we explore what makes the plant parts of the plant-forward Mediterranean kitchen so delicious. And we’ll ask how we might more fully adapt some of these techniques, flavors and other insights to advance plant-forward imperatives beyond the Mediterranean region. This “think piece” on the uptapped potential of the Mediterranean kitchen was written in conjunction with a recent seminar in New York City, “The New Olive Oil Kitchen,” co-presented by The Culinary Institute of America and the International Olive Council.
Recognized by UNESCO as a World Intangible Cultural Heritage and now considered a matter of settled science, the olive oil–rich, traditional Mediterranean diet has been widely inspiring healthier food choices among Americans for more than two decades. Over that time, we have come to accept olive oil as part of the American market basket, not just an exotic ingredient belonging to other distant cultures. And further, we have come to understand that, like wine and some foods, there is a whole world of olive oil—full of varietals, styles, aromatics, and markers of excellence.
Today, as chefs and consumers are expanding their aspirations for change around food, health, sustainability, and food system innovation—together with a wider appetite for culinary discovery—a new vision of an American, plant-forward kitchen is capturing our attention. Relying on both global flavors and seasonal, regional, and even hyper-local ingredients, chefs and home cooks alike are embracing plant-forward ideas in the kitchen that reflect human and planetary health imperatives and simultaneously embrace new pathways towards deliciousness.
Let’s explore, then, the substantive ways that the plant-forward, olive oil kitchen—rooted in the Mediterranean but now being reimagined as well in America and beyond—can leverage flavor and expand our repertoire of culinary techniques as we craft the future of our food.