From Italy, with Love: Our Burrata, our best local (for a little while longer!) tomatoes, now finished with Lucini's best olive oil.
Sometimes the best ingredients aren’t produced locally, like in the case of great olive oil.
We use a lot of olive oil at MGFD. We cook with it, and, with an Italian sensibility, we finish dishes like Burrata with generous drizzles. We insist on finishing with oil that has great flavor; used raw for that last layer of seasoning, it needs to be of higher quality than one you heat as a cooking agent.
For finishing, you want a first cold press extra-virgin olive oil straight from the source. Traceability of a product made in Italy is especially important, and you must know and trust your source to ensure what’s in the bottle is what it says on the label. In Miami, we’re fortunate to have a family-owned company producing and importing some of the best olive oil sold commercially, Lucini Italia. CEO Renee Frigo Graeff has just assumed the post as our local convivium leader at Slow Food, the international non-profit organization with Italian roots and now firmly rooted in cities across America in defense of good, clean and fair food.
We began purchasing Lucini Italia Organic Limited Reserve Extra Virgin Olive Oil, its premium pick and press, a couple of months ago for the restaurant and wanted to share a little with you about the company — who they are and how they make the product. This is always the most important step for us in our relationships with suppliers. And who better to do so than the ultimate conduit, a native South Floridian who just returned from three years living in Roma and married an Italian chef with family olive groves. Take it away, Ellie.
