The Chemical Story of Olive Oil: From Grove to Table

The Chemical Story of Olive Oil: From Grove to table
Comprehensive is the first word that comes to mind when I finished reading this book. Wow is there any question that is left unanswered, and the answer is none.
Although most of the chemical analyses skirted my interest, the process of how olive oil lands on my table was an eye opener. After grinding down the fruit, the process of maturation as a paste—malaxation—was an eye-opener. The chemical reaction in this olive paste, acting as one of the many gatekeepers in the process of making good olive oil, provided greater insight into good olive oil making. As a kid I was brought up with olives even in the city of my Mediterranean country. In the moats filling the gaps between the many bastions where opportunistic farmers planted olive trees. The perennial harvest fascinated me as an urban kid since when I stole the olive it was an inedible cardboard fruit. I now appreciate the process of making this amazing fruit edible. Enjoying the stories and the information I gained the impression not just about the knowledge that the authors have accumulated about their topic, but the passion that they bring to the study of this humble fruit. Olives have evolved with us as human beings. Even for non-chemist, as I am, I thoroughly appreciated how the authors wove a multi-layered story accessible to everyone. They even persuaded me to look closer at the chemistry, especially when looking at what makes fresh or rancid olive oil, and cooking with olive oil (yes).
This book is not just about the story of olive oil, which is an interesting topic all by itself, but a story about our civilization. And as a gerontologist, I was intrigued to see whether they mentioned the oldest person that ever lived at 122 years of age: Jeane Louis Calment. They did, but they missed on one aspect of her use of olive oil, she liberally used it as a body lotion. The uses of olive oil might be broad, but the cultivation and production of olive oil is truly a thermometer of our civilization. Wrote my shopping list after reading this book…find a true olive oil.