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Cultural Usage > Olive Oil as a Spice
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Uzi Berkman speaking with Haim Cohen, chef and owner of Keren Restaurant,
Tel Aviv
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”Keren” was honored with Gault Millau’s
“Restaurant of the Year” award for the year 2000. The title was
bestowed in no little part due to the efforts of Chef Haim Cohen. Mr
Cohen characterizes his relationships to olives as a “love story”.
In general, olive oil is a question of taste, and he always tastes
the oil prior to purchasing it. A simple process, he pours the oil
into a handy wine glass, covers the glass with his hand and warms
the oil. The warm oil emits a bouquet into the wine glass cavity,
where it can be “nosed” and tasted. If the oil passes the bouquet/taste
test, it still has to pass a color test. For Haim, olive oil must
be green. On principal, there is no correlation between oil color
and quality: green olives produce green oil and dark and mature olives
produce light, yellowish oil. Haim buys an oil when he feels it is
“communicating” with him. Sometimes he prefers the oil to be “rough
and wild”, and uses his experience to turn the oil’s disadvantages
into advantages.
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Olive oil is an excellent condiment for all types of food, and
is especially suited to Mediterranean-style of cooking currently
taking root in Israel. It is good with fresh and cooked vegetables,
cooked dishes, fish and meat. Think what a tasty delight it is to
enjoy a wipe of fresh bread in a bowl of olive oil. . . Olive oil
can also be used to thicken soup: Haim does this by dripping the
oil into the soup and beating it until the desired texture and degree
of thickness have been reached, a quality alternative to the use
of butter. He seals meat in olive oil, and then continues the cooking
in red wine. He prepares Carpaccio with olive oil and lemon. When
preparing Steak Tartar, he replaces the raw egg with olive oil.
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Olive oil
is suitable also for baking and for deserts. Haim suggests serving
strawberries as a desert, replacing the usual whipped cream with
olive oil and Bellasamic Vinegar, dribbling a little of both on
the fruit. He also suggests dribbling a little olive oil on any
hot dish. The heat “opens” the oil and releases its bouquet. He
regards his relationship to “olive juice”
- a love story.
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