Olive oil and the chef

Accomplished chef and olive oil connoisseur Nino Zoccali is bringing a new wave of olive oils to Australian plates and palates.

Make your way through the grand floors of Sydney’s Strand Arcade, passing by designer frock shops and suited gents stopping for a shoeshine, and climb the winding staircase to the second level. Here, you’ll be greeted by mounds of freshly baked bread, the aroma of brewing coffee and familiar scents of Italian cooking that trigger instant cravings for risotto and ragù. At restaurant, cafe and wine bar, Pendolino, a new addition to Sydney’s dining scene offering top-notch, traditional Italian fare, you’ll also find one of the city’s gourmet gems: L’Olioteca – a boutique showcasing premium Australian and Italian olive oils.
It’s the brainchild of chef and restaurateur Nino Zoccali. He’s probably best known to foodies for his time as head chef at Sydney dining institution Otto Ristorante, but Nino spent his youth studying to be an economist and teaching English in Calabria, Italy, before carving a career in fine food. It all started when he returned from Italy and helped a friend open a cafe, El Nino. By the time he was 24, he had his own restaurant in Margaret River, Western Australia, called Caffe Contadino – another joint venture with a friend. He’s also worked as a contributing editor for a hospitality magazine, acted as a consultant in the food industry and gained a place on the Australian Olive Oil Association tasting panel.
On entering L’Olioteca (which means olive oil store in Italian), it’s easy to think you’ve stumbled into an apothecary. Among the library of cookbooks, jars of plump olives and rustic wooden serving boards are rows of amber glass bottles, from compact containers to six-litre giants. The old-world atmosphere is no coincidence, reveals Nino. “In the early days, extra virgin olive oil was seen in Australia as a medicine rather than an ingredient – the only place you could buy it in a bottle was at the chemist.” Dark glass, he explains, is best for storing olive oil as, unlike clear glass, it prevents oxidisation, which eventually turns oil rancid.
Today it’s hard to imagine a time when Italian food and its staple ingredients weren’t a part of our daily culinary lives – as Nino points out, Australia is the highest consumer per capita of olive oil outside the Mediterranean. But his mission with L’Olioteca and Pendolino is to introduce us to a new level of extra virgin oils that, until now, hasn’t been widely available. “Olive oil has always been a big part of what I do at restaurants – I’ve been heavily involved in the industry in Australia for the past eight years or so and I wanted to use this opportunity to really show the amazing things our producers are doing.” His focus is on premium oils, which, he explains, “are usually early-harvest oils, made when the olives are going from green to black. First and foremost they’re premium because of their health properties. They’re high in polyphenols [chemical substances found in plants with antioxidant benefits], so they’re extremely good for you.”
Food lovers will find themselves torn between the oils Nino has hand-picked for his store. It’s a collection that includes, to name a few, glowing oils from Australian biodynamic producer Patrice Newell, to boutique growers such as Hairy Marron in Western Australia and Gwydir Grove, hailing from Inverell, New South Wales. Taking pride of place is La Collezione L’Olioteca, a selection of premium Australian oils grouped into four categories: dolce (sweet), fruttato allegro (fruity), sanguinella agrumato (blood orange) and biologico (organic).
“The dining public has never been more sophisticated – it couldn’t be a better time for me to be doing what I’m doing,” he says. “I think the collective palate in Australia – possibly across the world – is changing because there is more premium-quality oil coming onto the market.”
“We’ve got some producers from Tasmania, such as Cradle Coast, Platypus Creek and Ashbolt, who have only 700 or so trees and produce phenomenal oils,” he says. “We’re the only place in mainland Australia you can find some of these. A lot of our oils are single estate, made in very small runs and highly awarded.” Pressed to pick a favourite, Nino is diplomatic. “They’re all good,” he laughs.

PHOTOGRAPHY: SAM MCADAM   GROOMING: FELICIA YONG