Extra Virgin. Cold Pressed. Olio Nouvo. Not all olive oils are created equally, but — lucky for us — we’ve gathered olive oil savants to share their time-honored insights into the vast world of olive oil, from production, sustainability, flavor, fraud and more. 

Lorenzo Caponetti, organic farmer and producer of Casa Caponetti Olio Nuovo in Tuscania, and Skyler Mapes and Giuseppe Morisani, the duo behind award-winning EXAU Olive Oil made in Calabria, take you from grove to table. Italian food expert Viola Buitoni is your host for the evening, and will share how to properly taste olive oil, in addition to two delicious recipes that best highlight the flavors of Casa Caponetti and EXAU olive oils.

Photo by Molly De Coudreaux

VIOLA BUITONI

Viola Buitoni, chef instructor and food writer, was born in Rome and raised in Perugia, Italy. With stories and knowledge from six generations, her dishes cross the best of California agriculture with the finest Italian food imports. After moving to the US to attend NYU, Viola started Buitoni & Garretti, a catering kitchen and Italian fine foods shop in New York City. She later moved to San Francisco where she began lecturing and teaching Italian food tradition workshops at the SF Italian Cultural Institute and Italian Consulate. She teaches Italian cooking at 18Reasons, The Civic Kitchen and Milk Street year round and at the Puglia Culinary Center in the summer. In October of 2021 she will lead an immersive fall foraging workshop in Le Marche. She is a regular contributor to La Cucina Italiana US. She lives in the Mission District with her husband, son and tiny dog.

LORENZO CAPONETTI

Before making olive oil and managing a farm, Lorenzo studied architecture, forestry science and rural planning. In 1996, at the age of 23, by a twist of life he found himself managing the 125 acres of Casa Caponetti, the farm where he now resides. Today, the farm produces olive oil, vegetables, horses, cattle and pigs and functions as a B&B with a 15-seat restaurant.

Lorenzo has given countless talks on olive oil production and the values of olive tree cultivation as both a cultural and environmental stronghold. He also lectures about agroecology and multifunctional farming – that is, agriturismo, and social farming. He has spoken at the Culinary Institute of America (2003-2015), Cornell University, the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture, and the University of Washington, among other institutions.

Since 2018, Lorenzo has been collaborating with Alicenova Cooperativa Sociale, working to create stable jobs in farming for people in need, disabled or refugees.

He lives on the farm with his two daughters aged 11 and 5, and a very fierce wife.

SKYLER MAPES

Skyler is a native of Oakland, CA. She worked in the design industry then the wine industry before, co-founding EXAU Olive Oil in 2017. After working in the wine industry Skyler became interested in olive oil after meeting her husband and learning about olive trees. In 2017 she moved to Calabria, south Italy with her husband to learn the olive oil industry.

She harvested, pressed, bottled, designed packaging, then imported the products to the U.S. to sell directly to customers. 

EXAU has been recognized for producing 'One of the World's Best Olive Oils' (NYIOOC) and recently started an olive oil membership. Skyler is dedicated to educating the public about high-quality olive oil and fair representation for women of color in the olive oil industry. To this day she's only met one other black female olive oil producer. The company is based in Austin, TX and Calabria, Italy.

GIUSEPPE MORISANI

Giuseppe is the co-founder of EXAU Olive Oil. After joining the army, he decided to study economics at Sapienza University in Rome. Born and raised in beautiful Calabria, South Italy, Giuseppe, grew up playing in Campania (the countryside), climbing olive trees, and eating fresh Indian figs from the giant plant that grew along the fence of his family's estate. Giuseppe's grandfather was a farmer and olive oil producer. He planted many of the olive trees on the property and the surrounding area. Giuseppe's father also took great care tending to the property by planting more olive trees and other fruit and nut trees which remain on the property to this day.

In 2016 upon arriving to the U.S. Giuseppe was disappointed by the lack of traditional Calabrian olive oil he found on the shelves of local grocery stores. He craved the medium-bodied fruit-forward oils his family had been producing for almost 100 years. Giuseppe came up with the idea to start an olive oil company with his wife, Skyler Mapes. The couple moved to Giuseppe's hometown of Le Castella, Calabria in late 2017 for their first harvest. Since then, EXAU has grown into an internationally recognized brand and one of the leading olive oils in the world.

Giuseppe is now a third-generation olive oil producer, fulfilling a dream he believes his grandfather and father secretly had for him. He works closely with agronomists, chemists, and biologists to test virtually every aspect of the production process and to ensure the trees are in good health year-round.

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