Visiting Cesare Bianchini at Domenica Fiore
I had the great fortune this season to go and spend some time with Cesare Bianchini in Orvieto, where he spends his time nurturing the infamous Domenica Fiore olive groves, (owned, incidentally, by Vancouver’s own entrepreneurial mogul Frank Giustra), and keeping an eye on their century old family restaurant while we eat, taste olive oils, and talk food…
Cesare Bianchini- the man behind the oil
I think that may have been one of the most enjoyable meals I’ve sat down to in years- I don’t think the restaurant was even open- we were just drinking wine and tasting oils and vinegars, and talking about organic olive farming and finding cool organic grains and beans around the valley; Cesare’s sister was just feeding us and feeding us as our lunch dragged into early evening – it was awesome.
he also let me try his vinegar he’s been working on- it was amazing- rich and red but deep caramel at the same time, kind of a red wine and sherry meet banyuls thing.. anyways, loved it, but then he told me that I can’t have any for another year because that when it will get really good, so we’re kind of on standby for that one 😉
when we did tear away from the restaurant for brief stints to see the farm, it was really an amazing operation- the logistics are such that once the oil is pressed, it never again sees oxygen- it’s contained under a nitrogen flush for every step of the way from that point,into giant floor to cieling nitrogen flushed drums, then directly through a totally contained high tech bottling line into a nitrogen flushed stainless steel can.
I get that this might seem awfully clinical and far less romantic than we may have hoped for from a beautiful olive grove perched on the side of a medieval valley in Umbria, but so be it- there’s good reason for it…
not only was the DOP Domenica Fiore Riserva awarded Best in Class at the New York International Olive Oil Competition, they actually rated the highest point score given at the show out of 700+ other roils, with a score of 9.8
I’m thinking they’re onto something here 😉
In all seriousness, when I talk about getting excited about people who are passionate about what they do, that’s Cesare- he may even get more excited about food than me, lol, and I don’t say that very often… anyways, we hatched some big ideas over lunch – that’s a story for a couple blogs from now, but trust me, there’s some super cool stuff going on…
let me leave you with a little clip of Cesare filling us in on how it felt, to find out they’d just scored the highest score over all in the New York Intl’ Olive Oil Competition “Best Olive Oils in the World 2013”
click here for full HD version
keep an eye on the blog, we’re pretty close to some stuff we’ve been working on, you’ll see it here… (think exclusive oils only available at giovane market)…
https://vimeo.com/chefdbrown/videos