Countdown to Italia

Buon giorno al tutti! We are headed to Italy in a week and my Italian is rusty. So I've taken to practicing Italian in my kitchen with tapes. Capisce, signorina?

We will be olive picking in Tuscany and our friend Nick sent us reading material about the dark side of the olive oil trade. Turns out there's this underworld of olive oil fraud where tankers of hazelnut and seed oil are passed off as the real thing EVOO, or extra-virgin olive oil.

This fascinating New Yorker article "Slippery Business" outlines the sting to catch the bribes and unsavory characters in the act. "Profits were comparable to cocaine trafficking with none of the risks," said one investigator.

So fellow foodies, be wary of olive oil imposters!