Modern Pioneering with Georgia Pellegrini

>> "Modern Pioneering" is made possible by... >> Welcome to Total Wine.

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>> Find wine, beer, and spirits from around the world at Total Wine & More.

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>> And made possible by Michael and Susan McGwire, Zina Bash, and many other generous donors.

A full list is available at georgiapellegrini.com.

>> These olive tree in Provence are very complex, and they're very -- in a certain sense, they're very high-tech because they adapt to the new weather, they produce something which is very good, and they are very difficult to understand.

>> There are some places that possess a rare magic, the kind of places you dream about going back to because they allowed time to slow down, sparked a joy that you need.

These places are like an old, familiar friend that you can go years without seeing yet pick up exactly where you left off in a kind of revelry.

Les Baux-de-Provence is that place for me in the Alpilles region of France.

I first drove through its magical hills in my 20s while cooking at a Michelin restaurant in the countryside.

I had taught myself to drive stick shift for the sole purpose of getting to see the olive trees during their harvest.

Standing among these trees 15 years later is even better than I remember.

There is something romantic about good olive oil and also noble.

Olives can endure more extreme weather than grapes.

Whereas with grapes, winemakers must be poised to pick at the pivotal moment, olives are forgiving.

The flavor of good olive oil is one of the oldest and purest, unchanged by centuries of innovation.

The primitive, sinuous trunks, the spreading yawn of the branches, the metallic flicker of the silver-gray leaves give you a distinct sense that you are tasting and living time.

>> Bonjour.

My name is Jean-Benoit Hugues.

I'm an olive-oil producer in Provence.

>> For my old friends at Castela's, it began with a plot of land elevated along a slope in Les Baux-de-Provence and a promise to an old man that they would never build on it.

It was a field of 400-year-old trees, where a mystical combination of rock, sun, and age produced the best olive oil of all subsequent 45 hectares that they purchased.

And so an oil earned its name, a hobby, became a profession, and established a strong terroir -- the taste of a place.

Jean-Benoit, how do you know when the olives are ready to harvest?

>> Well, it's a -- it's a fairly complicated story.

See, this tree here, they're green.

>> Uh-huh.

>> So you would think -- one would think that they're not ripe yet.

However, if you crush them, you're gonna see some fat.

Okay.

It's oily.

>> Mm-hmm.

>> See?

>> Yeah.

>> And you can feel it.

Okay?

You can smell it.

Yeah.

It's, uh -- >> Wow.

>> It smells like a young olive oil.

>> Mm-hmm.

>> And you can taste it, but you've got to be careful because it's really bitter.

So you need -- you need practice.

>> Mm-hmm.

Yeah, there is a good bitterness to it.

Um, good pepperiness.

You have the taste that's going to end up in the olive oil.

So they're ripe.

You know, it's a problem because you cannot tell from the color of the olives.

>> So it's about feeling, tasting, smelling -- all of the senses.

The olive tree is truly a remarkable product of nature, and France's olive trees are a particular reminder of this.

They could never be harvested in the same manner as olive oil in Italy and Spain.

The many armed trunks would never cooperate with such technological advances in olive picking as the trunk shaker.

There is a lot of handwork to be done to get the best olive oil.

Out of the truck and onto the fields, workers methodically tug on the olives, milking the trees bare.

Traditionally, during the olive harvest, men and women from surrounding towns would arrive to perform the labor, doing what their parents and grandparents had done for generations.

In the days when people were less mobile, the olive harvest was when members of isolated villages had an opportunity to meet.

The times have changed.

The technique for picking olives has not.

It is still the same as it was two millennia ago.

The bache, a large plastic sheet, is placed around the base of the tree to catch the olives.

A short-handed rake with blunt teeth is used to comb the olives from the lower branches.

Jean-Benoit's crew is sporting modern electric rakes, powered by orange battery packs strapped to their backs.

And the days of ladders in France are gone.

Even so, the labor during harvest is still the most intensive and expensive part of the process.

But the family tradition of olive-picking is tapering off.

To make a single liter of extra virgin olive oil requires more than 10 pounds of olives and steps which Jean-Benoit executes meticulously.

Crates of olives are picked and processed within three hours to avoid must, the fermentation that results from sitting.

They are stripped of sticks and leaves, then washed in a tank of water.

After the crushing and pressing, the olives, now a green tapenade sludge, are whirled around in a centrifuge.

The resulting lime-green liquid makes its way through the pipeline and pours out of a spout and into a pool.

To create their collection of herb-infused olive oils, fresh aromatics are added as the olives are pressed and bottled, capturing their peak flavor.

>> When you make olive oil with those olives here, it's a blend.

So you are blending different kinds.

So instead of having a monolithic taste, you have a complex taste.

And each olives, each oil, gives its own contribution.

And it's the same story as wine.

You have wine made with one grape, but you also have wine which are complex, made with many grapes assembled together, and they are an image of the region where they grow.

Okay?

And it's the same thing with olive oil.

>> Jean-Benoit can tell you the field where each olive comes from, much like wine.

He produces four main varieties of olives to adhere to the local standards.

This is how France competes.

They will never produce the same quantity of olive oil as Italy or Spain, so instead they compete on quality.

>> I think a product like a high-end olive oil, tasty olive oil, an olive oil with an origin, an olive oil with a link to the soil, is not only a liquid, it's not only a food, it's something which is complex, part of the landscape, part of the traditions.

It's like a luxury item.

It's not something which is expensive.

That's not the side of things that I'm looking at, but something which is rare, which can last forever.

And what you see around us here has lasted the last 500 years and probably will last as many if people have the same mind, you know, keeping that artisanal way of doing things.

>> Jean-Benoit has brought back the incredible and ancient flavor of fermented olive oil that has caught the attention of chefs around the world.

He realized that all of the modern inventions in oil production were causing a loss in olive-oil flavors from the past, so he decided to experiment and create a controlled process where the olives could be fermented, resulting in a rich black olive flavor.

>> We left behind us some tastes from the past.

That fruity noir, that black olive taste, where did that come from?

Well, when the meal was very slow and the people were not caring -- taking care of it very properly, they would leave the olives in mounds.

There would be big mounds in an attic, and they would ferment it.

Uncontrolled fermentation.

And then, when they had time, they would press it and get some oil.

And the old people knew it -- the center of the mound, which had fermented without any oxygen, was excellent.

And so what we ended up doing is researching that.

We understood it came from the fermentation without oxygen, and we reproduced it with our new machines, and we ended up having a controlled process that fermented the olive, take away the vegetal side of the taste, and we acquire a black olive taste.

>> Jean-Benoit sits with his staff and family to taste their harvest and know which batches to blend together and which are ready.

They convene and produce notes based on organoleptic parameters like intensity of smell, harmony of smell, softness, heat, harmony in the mouth, heaviness, bitterness, and body.

I smell a sweetness and also a grassiness, like you said.

>> Wow.

That goes back to what you were saying, Georgia.

>> In addition to bringing back the taste of fermented olive oil, one of the things that makes Castela's unique is the way that they infuse fresh herbs into their oils.

They call them aromatics.

>> The reason why we did that originally is to show the world that we knew how to process a meal, we knew how to process olive oil, because making an aromatic olive oil with another, a fruit, a root, leaves is something that takes some technology.

After that, it grew without control.

We're not controlling it anymore.

We got -- then we got into the basil olive oil.

>> The herbs are grown late in the season, especially for their olive harvest by Philippe Ayme.

One of the things I learned while cooking here years ago is that the dry heat and lack of rain in the south of France creates especially potent flavors.

Everything grown from the earth takes on a greater vibrancy.

It is part of what makes the food taste so incredibly good.

>> My name is Philippe -- Philippe Ayme, and I'm a producer of the aromatic herbs in France, in Southern France, in Provence.

I produce the basilic for the oil.

>> Why are there so many bees?

>> [ Speaking French ] >> How many different types of herbs do you grow?

Mm-hmm.

Ah.

>> [ Inhales ] >> [ Inhales ] It's perfume.

>> Oui.

>> It's delicious.

Delicious.

>> Delicious.

>> In the same way that these basil flowers are where the basil is born, in this small patch of land, Philippe is at the birthplace of flavor that is elevating dishes throughout France.

Through his commitment to grow year round, through his labor in these fields, he is defining the taste of so many dishes and products throughout his country and even across the world, from olive oil to restaurants to family meals.

Philippe sends his herbs on a journey and has a reverberating effect on the world around him.

>> Au revoir.

>> The ingredients that grow in this region and the people that grow them are all interconnected, working together in a symbiotic relationship.

The herbs are grown for the oil.

The oil is pressed for the baker.

The baker grows heirloom wheat and exchanges it with other farmers and bakes it into specialty bread for chefs and locals.

I'm paying a visit to Henri de Pazzis, who is a kind of bread philosopher.

To spend time with him is to remember that to create and consume bread is to be aware of humanity's relationship with nature.

Ancient wheat tells a story.

Completely self-taught, Henri de Pazzis plants varieties of wheat from heritage seeds, not the varieties selected for mass production, and he exchanges them with other farmers to keep old varieties alive.

Soon, chefs and bakers began requesting his flour.

In his bakery, he uses a natural sourdough process rather than introducing yeast, and sells bread by weight, so you can buy anywhere from a single slice to a large loaf, a reminder that this is a special eating experience that should be customized and portioned thoughtfully.

>> I started growing wheat.

I had the feeling that wheat was a part of the -- of the secret of our civilization, and I started growing what we call ancient wheat or old varieties.

And I was -- I got involved in this because I thought it was very important that the farmers take, again, the freedom of -- of seeding and of selecting the varieties.

They are very local varieties.

Their names are village names.

They have a history in each village, and they have a story.

Our process is very near from a natural process.

Of course, it's a human process.

It takes a very long time.

With the modern techniques, you can bake in two hours.

It takes us 36 hours to make one bread.

We bake also in a firewood oven.

It changes every day because -- because it changes with the weather, it changes with the wood.

We are working with nature.

We are working with the elements.

>> There are few foods with a history that is as ancient as bread, but the wheat has also become modified so much through the years, so far removed from what it once was, that it has become a kind of poison for some people, causing a rise in gluten intolerance.

Henri is changing that by cultivating ancient varieties of wheat and fermenting his dough through a slow process that takes longer and produces a more complex flavor.

>> We, as humankind, we made a mistake at a certain point of our development when we started thinking that we were able to replace the whole natural system.

My feeling is that we made a mistake.

Of course, other people can believe that we are able to do that, but I'm absolutely convinced that we are not able to -- to dominate and to control the natural system.

In France, and generally speaking, in Europe in the last 40 years, we lost two-thirds of the organic material in the soil.

If we would consider that the real asset of a country is its soil -- So we are very poor at the moment, and we were much richer 40 years ago.

When you lose this organic material, it takes a very long time to rebuild it and a lot of energy and a lot of organic material.

That means animals, that means manual, that means a lot of things like that.

We have to think, and we have to live according to the nature because we are part of it.

Bread and our whole body system is very connected.

We have this physical and mental and symbolic relationship with bread.

I really live it, so it's not -- it's more -- it's a feeling.

It's a very deep feeling.

>> At his bakery, they use the local olive oil from Jean-Benoit for their sourdough focaccia.

And so we make some.

There is a symbolic, deep feeling about marrying the wheat, olive oil, and herbs grown from the same earth.

All three of these growers have contributed to this moment, the simple, ancient act of making bread, mixing the fruits of their labor into something beautiful, delicious, and as nature intended.

>> First of all, we do olive oil.

So it's fermented olive because... >> Ah, beautiful.

>> ...it's nicer for the focaccia, we think.

>> Uh-huh.

>> And you can just put it on the top.

>> Roughly a cup?

>> Yeah.

>> Okay.

So pretty generous, like an artist.

>> Yeah.

And you can just, like, spread it a bit everywhere on the top.

So you get everywhere.

>> Feels nice.

>> Yeah.

>> I imagine you can put all sorts of ingredients on the focaccia.

>> Yeah, you can put pretty much anything you want.

The most common one is just rosemary and sea salt.

But you can also put loads of vegetables, meats, like chorizo.

It depends what you want to eat.

>> And I imagine you're pretty generous with it?

>> Yeah.

>> Okay.

So, we put olives everywhere?

>> Yeah, you can put some everywhere.

The salt you add after it's baked.

So when you take it out of the oven, you can put sea salt on it.

It's not going to move, and it's usually better because with the heat, it can melt, you know?

>> And is it salt flakes or fine salt that you add?

>> Salt flakes.

Before we put it into the oven, you just press the dough like that.

>> Ah.

>> You can go.

>> Okay.

With the olive, you should be okay.

Yeah.

Perfect.

>> So, gentle?

>> Yeah, gentle everywhere.

>> Feels so good.

>> Yeah.

>> So now what happens with this?

Do we put it in?

>> Now we put it in in the wood-fire oven.

And let's see how it goes after.

It looks good.

>> It does.

>> It does.

>> Lots of rosemary.

[ Both laugh ] >> If I'm working today, growing the wheat and taking care of my land and baking, it's also because I have the feeling that I received a lot from nature, and the efforts I'm doing now, they just consist in giving back something.

So I consider I have a debt in front of nature.

So I want to give my energy back to nature.

Because food design a landscape, designing the habitat, designing the world.

If you are living in a city, taking care of your family and working for that, the choices you make with your food have a very, very big influence of the way you design the world.

Being involved in the way you feed yourself and you feed your family is also being involved in the way we develop the world and we develop the landscape.

>> I spent a major part of my life in America, especially my young adult life, so I've been molded.

Even though my accent stayed the same, I was molded in that spirit and that mind of a can-do attitude and, you know, nothing is impossible.

When you are in the high-tech business, there is many things that happens.

Number one, you're going very fast.

You're driving like in Germany, you're on the fast lane, you're on the left side of the road, and you're going like crazy.

And you're always looking in your mirror, afraid that somebody's going to flash at you to pass you.

You always, you know -- And it's -- it's fairly stressful, very exciting.

And it takes its toll on you because you want to be ahead all the time.

And that is tough on you, especially if you care.

And I do care.

There is a point where going back to your roots, because my father was a farmer, going back to those roots, changing pace, you know, is really a healing -- a healing process.

That's another thing I've learned.

It's a business where you really helped the other guys.

If you think that you've reached a certain level, you make sure that everybody reached that level so the whole area grow together.

So that's another challenge.

Make sure that everybody run at the same speed, okay?

Because then we're stronger.

And so that's something I've learned in France.

I haven't learned in the States mostly, but I have learned that here.

And I think it counts.

Another challenge is passing it on to the next generation and making sure that they will be able to pass it on to somebody else.

That's a big challenge.

Most important is to pass on to our daughter this -- this field and this process and this tool.

And, um -- and second, travel the world.

On a motorcycle.

>> To learn more about the topics featured on this episode, log on to georgiapellegrini.com, or follow along on Georgia's Facebook and Instagram pages for weekly "Modern Pioneering" adventures, tips, and recipes.

"Modern Pioneering" is made possible by... >> Welcome to Total Wine.

Doing okay?

>> My buddy says ros all day.

>> My personal fave is this new French ros.

>> Find wine, beer, and spirits from around the world at Total Wine & More.

>> At Muir Glen, we believe that organic farming benefits consumers, farmers, and ecosystems.

>> And made possible by Michael and Susan McGwire, Zina Bash, and many other generous donors.

A full list is available at georgiapellegrini.com.