Mediterranean Olive
Oil Academy
Advisers
The Mediterranean Olive oil Academy works with producers, supporters and advisers from across the whole Mediterranean region. We have teamed up with professionals who specialise not only in tutoring Extra Virgin Olive Oil appreciation and tasting classes but also are involved with the entire process of making fine extra virgin olive oils.
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They are experts in olive cultivation, olive tree propagation, olive harvesting and finally the production of fine extra virgin olive oils. Thanks to their help and support we are able to offer to our clients and students a wide range of specialist courses, talks and workshops. We will be adding more advisers as we grow over the coming months and years and we have several Greek and Spanish olive oil producers who now wish to join us at the Academy.
Salvatore Romano is the owner of Tasting Sicily - Gusta La Sicilia Srl which produces great taste awarded Sicilian fine food. He is also the Founder of Vita Sicula Srl offering hospitality and olive oil awareness courses to both Italian and foreign public.
He also produce fine Sicilian olive oil and he is an expert olive oil taster and regularly holds olive oil workshops for both amateurs and professionals. He is also Co-Founder of the Mediterranean Olive Oil Academy
Dermott Sales is the owner of Olivaverde a specialist olive oil company which promotes and sells high quality organic and biodynamic olive oils from the Mediterranean region, mainly from Italy including Sicily, Malta and Greece. He holds a degree in Botany where his special interest was in the biochemistry of plants which are adapted to survive in barren and hot environments. He is currently the leader of Slow Food Anglia in the east of England and was one of the founding members of Slow Food Mediterranean, a grouping of Slow Food regions from Sicily, mainland Italy and Malta.
Andrea Tomassetti is the joint owner of Tomassetti Vini in the Marche region of eastern Italy and is a qualified olive oil taster and oil producer. Andrea produces fine organic olive oils and wines with his brother Matteo, they make a blend of oil from local Italian olive varieties and also small amounts of an olive oil made only from the Raggia olive variety which is found in this region of Italy. Andrea has hosted olive oil tasting master classes in both Italy in London and the east of England, his special areas of interest are biodynamic and organic methods of wine and olive oil production.
Andreas Venakis an history teacher and Emmanuel Vantarakis with a background in communication, are two cousins who share a love for gastronomy and nature.
Their shared passion led them to reunite their parents' small neighbouring family olive groves (once a single property) to produce EFKRATO, their awarded organic high phenolic limited production EVOO that comes from an ancient Cretan variety called Tsounati.
They are continuously trying to reduce the impact of their cultivation and production on the environment as well as to improve the organoleptic characteristics of their EVOO. They are more than happy to both share their experiences and knowledge and learn from people who share their passion for pure responsibly produced healthy food.
Dr Ugo Pazzi is a free lance agronomist and collaborates with Slow Food in Italy at national level on many projects linked to education and training. He is a teacher at the Master in Food and Culture Communication at the University of Gastronomic Science in Pollenzo, Italy, and he is an expert in VTA, Visual Tree Assessment. From March 2014 until recently he was also the leader of Slow Food Marche in Italy and since 2018 he is currently the leader of the Cooperativa dei Sibillini, a cooperative born to help producers that were badly affected when hit by the earthquake in Central Italy in 2016