Georgia has recently made a name for itself as an olive oil harvesting region, but the Southern state is not alone—orchards and producers in Texas, Florida, and even South Carolina are creating high-quality oils worth writing home about (and one South American brand has found a strong foothold in the American South, too). In fact, chefs and home cooks across the region are embracing this homegrown liquid gold, often using it in place of butter to enhance everything from bread and desserts to cocktails. Here are some of our favorite bottles to grab.
Pure Chilean
In Atlanta, a city known for buttery biscuits and fried chicken, chefs are embracing something unexpected: South American olive oil. Pure Chilean, founded by Chileans with Lebanese-Italian roots, comes from a vertically integrated three-thousand-acre farm in Chile’s Maipo Valley. Veronica Cuellar, the company’s director of retail and e-commerce, is a trained olive oil sommelier who spends weekends at Atlanta-area farmers markets educating people on flavor nuances (taste that banana peel, green apple, fresh-cut grass, or hazelnut?), and local chefs have taken note. Daniella Lea Rada at Signia by Hilton uses the Arbequina varietal for lemon olive oil cake, while Karl Gorline at Avize infuses it with pine for ice cream. La Semilla’s Reid Trapani incorporates the oil into Cuban sofrito and chimichurri, and at Atlas, Freddy Money uses the Hojiblanca varietal for desserts, seafood, and fat-washing cocktails. I love the brand’s infused EVOO and use the lemon (for hummus, salads, and cakes), black garlic and rosemary (for steak and potatoes), and basil (on pasta) at home. —Allison Ramirez, G&G contributor based in Atlanta
Olinda Olive Oil
Olinda brings a touch of California craftsmanship to Southern kitchens thanks to owners Jeanne and JB DeCamilla, who live in Charleston, South Carolina. They grow the olives at their family orchard in Happy Valley (once known as Olinda) where the trees are more than one hundred years old. “Whether using Olinda to dress up fresh tomatoes, serve with focaccia, mix into homemade vinaigrettes, or drizzle on top of sweet gelato, the possibilities are endless,” says the Charleston private chef and TV personality Lauren Furey. She uses it by the gallon and made sure to include it in her butter bean salad with pickled shrimp, which was featured on her SCETV show Now We’re Cookin’. She also uses Olinda in a Vidalia onion and honey dressing that the Nathalie Dupree taught her how to make. —Allison Ramirez
Fresh Press Farms
Our annual Made in the South Awards food tasting day is hands-down one of my favorite days of the year, and ever since this cool metal bottle from Iron City, Georgia, showed up on the table during a judging session a few years ago, I’ve been using this stuff on salads and in my cast-iron skillet for sautéing veggies. Cold-pressed from olives grown on a farm in Southwest Georgia and made entirely on site, the oil is both sustainably made and delicious. The company also makes a killer peach cider vinegar that gives apple cider vinegar a run for its money. —Caroline Sanders Clements, associate editor
Frankies 457
This delicious stuff is as Italian as it gets, and popular too—Whole Foods sells it now. But let me bring it into the G&G fold, or at least justify my forever love of Frankies. As a young journalist in New York, I was working three part-time media jobs plus taking hostess shifts at my favorite neighborhood restaurant, Frankies 457 in Carroll Gardens. When I got the call to interview for a job at Garden & Gun in Charleston, Frankies owners Frank Falcinelli and Frank Castronovo told me they were longtime G&G readers and wished me luck. I got the gig (twelve years ago now!) and moved South to be closer to family. But I still keep a reminder of Frankies close—the tall green bottle of their olive oil in easy reach. Last year, Frankies opened a Nashville location, and I can’t wait to check out both the restaurant and the Frankies Bottega, which is lined with jarred olives and that foundational olive oil. —CJ Lotz Diego, senior editor
Bramasole
Frances Mayes, G&G contributor and Georgia-born author of Under the Tuscan Sun, is fully living out her Italian dreams at her Bramasole estate in Tuscany—and even bottling olive oil from her grove there. She sells the golden nectar in bulk here, but do poke around the site to see images of the harvests and meals she makes with her husband, Ed. Then read about her love of making a home in both the American South and Italy here. —CJ Lotz Diego
Texas Olive Ranch
The largest olive oil producer in the South, Texas Olive Ranch crafts high-quality extra virgin olive oils from locally grown olives that are free from chemicals and pesticides. Grocery stores like Whole Foods, Albertsons, and Aldi stock them, and the oils are used in more than seventy restaurants in Southern states, including Sweetgreen, Husk (in Savannah and Charleston), Bellegarde Bakery in New Orleans, and top hotels in Dallas/Fort Worth and Austin like the Fairmont and Four Seasons. —Allison Ramirez
15 Olives
With orchards in both Florida and California, 15 Olives produces small-batch extra virgin olive oils (and vinegars) with a farm-to-table approach. The family-owned business was founded by Stuart Alfonso, who grew up spending lots of time on his grandfather’s farm. Today Alfonso is a certified sensory panelist and a member of the Florida Olive Council. Under an hour from Tallahassee, the Florida orchard grows Arbequina, Arbosana, Picual, and Koroneiki olive varietals (all Spanish except for the last one, which is Greek), all free from additives and synthetic ingredients. —Allison Ramirez
