10.18.2015 - By Paul Cappelli & Steven Crutchfield, discussing all things Italian: food, cu
After a short catch up on life at the villa, including a couple of culinary tours and our harvest of peppers, you'll learn about our PLUS method (Price. Label. Understanding. Source) which you can use to help ensure the extra virgin olive oil you are buying is truly extra virgin olive oil.
Topics we cover:
Why you should always back up your hard drive with an external drive like this one or a cloud based system
Our two culinary tours and one bike tour we just had
The first culinary tour with chefs Michael Howell and Michael Blackie
Canada's premiere food film festival Devour!
Michael Blackie's restaurant Next
The fun with have with HETravel tours at Villa Cappelli
Some of our favorite restaurants in the area, including Grotta Palazzese and Antichi Sapori
Why most Italian restaurants don't like serving kids
Why it's hard for Italian restaurants here in Italy, from the number of seatings to alcohol consumption
Why you shouldn't order off the menu in an Italian restaurant
Paul's long lost cousins from California that recently visited us
Our Facebook group, Terlizzi USA
Our shipment we're preparing for the US
Paul and his peppers, from Habaneros to the hottest pepper in the world, the Carolina Reaper
Why we called our spicy products, KTM, Kit a Mut or Curse the Dead
The Scoville Scale for rating peppers and what it means, which essential the Smithsonian Magazine explains better than me: The idea was to dilute an alcohol-based extract made with the given pepper until it no longer tasted hot to a group of taste testers. The degree of dilution translates to the SHU. In other words, according to the Scoville scale, you would need as many as 5,000 cups of water to dilute 1 cup of tobacco sauce enough to no longer taste the heat. Some of the health benefits of peppers, including lowering blood pressure, thinning blood and helping HEAL ulcers
Some of our other conserves like our Plum Conserves
A video series on Italian television about the fraud in the olive oil industry
Why the politicians are one of the biggest problems, including laws that confiscated oil has to be proven bad within three days time and customs officials are held personally responsible for any losses a company may experience if the company fights the charges brought against them
The economics of extra virgin olive oil and how it's impossible to sell extra virgin olive oil for as little amount of money that big companies do
Our PLUS method to insure you what are buying is truly extra virgin olive oil
Price. If the price seems too good to be true, it probably is.
Label. Look for seals like DOP and the origin of olives.
Understanding. Know that terms like "light" and "pure" olive oil are just marketing terms.
Source. Know where your extra virgin olive oil comes from. Trust a farm, not a factory.
Why you shouldn't be fooled by green oil