Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil
Written by Tom Mueller
Narrated by Peter Ganim
4/5
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Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this audiobook
Tom Mueller
Tom Mueller is a New York Times bestselling author whose previous books include Crisis of Conscience: Whistleblowing in an Age of Fraud and Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil. His writing has appeared in the New Yorker, New York Times Magazine, National Geographic, and the Atlantic Monthly. He divides his time between the Pacific Northwest and Italy.
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Reviews for Extra Virginity
15 ratings7 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Like many books of this genre, your mileage may vary: there are parts of this book that are fascinating and parts that really drag. I was much more interested in the modern-day fraudulent olive oil trade than in the history of olive oil's popularity in the Mediterranean, which I was already familiar with. Although there is a lot going on in each chapter of the book, I found it easy to skip sections I already knew about (for instance, olive oil in religious ceremonies) and get back to more modern stories. It's worth a read if you buy olive oil for home cooking. I do, and I am now very intrigued about what I'm actually getting from Trader Joe's. I'll be watching this topic in the future to see if the European Union starts enforcing its rules around olive oil labeling.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5While there was some interesting information, this book went very slowly. There was almost too much history and not enough current information.
I'll not look at the olive oil from the grocery store the same way, but this book also wasn't enough to make me stop buying it for general cooking purposes. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Being an experienced cook and farmer, I always wondered how grocery stores could afford to sell extra virgin olive oil at such low prices. Thanks to Mr. Mueller I now know the answer and the news isn't pretty.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This book is going to end up costing me an arm and a leg, I'm sure. I learned a lot, much of it disheartening. That extra-virgin first-cold-press olive oil you bought at the supermarket? Is most likely fit only for burning in a lamp. It's almost certainly not extra-virgin, and it's quite possibly not even OLIVE oil. *sigh*
Fortunately, Mueller does provide links and resources to help a person get hooked up with the real deal.
The book itself is interesting but feels padded- the story could have been told in a feature article, though I did enjoy getting to know some of the olive farmers and their opinions.
Books, they change your life. - Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5While there was some interesting information, this book went very slowly. There was almost too much history and not enough current information.
I'll not look at the olive oil from the grocery store the same way, but this book also wasn't enough to make me stop buying it for general cooking purposes. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5While I found a great deal of interesting information about the olive oil industry and the ubiquity of fraudulent oils buried in the text, the generic prose and clichéd characterizations (does every small olive oil producer have an engaging smile, folk wisdom, and a family kitchen run like a Manhattan bistro?) dilutes the book's message and, in the end, eroded my patience. Still, it is an honest account and the author is able to communicate an admirable passion for his subject. It's worth reading by anyone with an interest in the present state of the olive oil market.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5If you regularly use olive oil, you must read this book. You will never casually grab a bottle of olive oil from your supermarket's shelf again! This is a great book detailing the fraud behind the labels of extra virgin olive-oil bottles. Odds are that the bottle in your pantry isn't extra virgin. In fact, it may contain more cotton seed, peanut or sunflower oil than olive oil. In addition to educating the reader on good vs. fraud oils, he also informs you about the world-wide oil markets and the history of olive oil. Make sure to read the appendix,m which informs you on how to choose quality olive oils.