About Us

Meet the Team

Dermott Sales

Founder of Olivaverde in 2008, a bespoke olive oil promotional and retail business in Italy and the UK, featuring only artisan produced extra virgin olive oils.

Coordinator for Festivaldelgusto a specialist food events business in Italy.

Dermott is the Chair of Slow Food Anglia in the east of England, working closely on projects with Slow Food London and UK, since 2014 he has been on the steering committee of the grouping of Slow Food Mediterranean.

Salvatore Romano

Owner of Tasting Sicily - Gusta la Sicilia Srl. producing Great Taste Awarded sicilian fine foods. Founder of VitaSicula Srl offering hospitality and Oliveoil awareness courses in Sicily. Salvatore is the producer of Kore olive oil in Sicily which has won several awards. Director and founder of the cultural non profit organisation “Art project Graniti” promoting artistic events and cultural exchange in Sicily

Silvia Venturini

Coordinator for Slow Food Anglia in the east of England, UK. Works as an Event Coordinator and Social Media Marketing Consultant for many years in the food sector, with a special focus on not for profit organisations and also small independent restaurants. Silvia is based in the Marche region of eastern Italy and is involved in the food and beverage sectors both in Italy, Malta and also in the UK.

What is the Mediterranean Olive Oil Academy?

The Mediterranean Olive Oil Academy is the first fully dedicated academy in the Mediterranean region promoting premium fine extra virgin olive oils, olive oil products and small artisan olive oil producers.

With over ten years experience within the sector, the Olivaverde team have come to know very well how small artisan producers can struggle on daily basis to promote and get the fruits of their work recognised. We decided that part of our mission would be to help producers get their olive oils more widely known and appreciated by the wider public, also to promote and grow the appreciation of these fine extra virgin olive oils within the retail and food services sectors.

We also will effectively promote them as an alternative to mass produced olive oil and poorer quality olive oils which currently make up so much of the retail market at present. In addition as we came to know more about the benefits of Mediterranean olive oil on health together with the increasing importance of the Mediterranean diet we became more and more involved with local producers to help promote a healthier way of life and diet through education, tastings and production knowledge.

More in details the Mediterranean Olive Oil Academy in Malta will become a focal point for educational projects on olive oil in the region with a permanent office and projects up and running by summer 2019 which will include

Pop up olive oil tastings and guided workshops for the public
Courses for professionals which will also include business trip to Italy to visit mills and to learn the latest advanced techniques of productions
B2B meetings to help our small producers to be known to a wider public and to help them to get out of their local area and expand their selling possibilities
Cooperation with international festivals and trade fairs to promote our producers and ethos
Cooperation with schools and associations to help promoting the heath and high quality of the Mediterranean diet by organising workshops with pupils of all ages
Actively promote the Mediterranean diet as a way to help people live and eat better and also as a natural and effective way to help fighting food related disease as diabetes, high cholesterol, etc

The Mediterranean Olive Oil Academy together with our partners Olivaverde and Tasting Sicily strongly believe that educating people on how to select a better quality extra virgin olive oil to use in their cooking and in the kitchen can compliment their diet and lifestyle. This will also help olive oil producers to bring their excellent extra virgin olive oils to the knowledge of the wider public therefore making a real difference to diet, health and overall quality of life.

The Academy is also linked with the Slow Food organisation which promotes good, clean and healthy food across the world and we work closely with the Slow Food Mediterranean group based in Italy and Malta.