Extra Virgin Olive Oil vs Butter

I worked for a woman, slightly mad from Barcelona for 16 years, and what she taught me was to respect proper ingredients while preparing authentic Spanish cuisine. I’ll never forget the day early in my career when I thought enhancing my recipe for chicken livers flamed in a rich garlicky sherry sauce, a new Tapas dish, with butter as being a great idea. After all my Beach Side Cafe days in the early 80’s nearly everything was finished with butter, I’m not saying that was a bad thing particularly in the malaysian styled curried scallop dish. This fiery woman bursts into the kitchen just as I am about to add butter yells out at me “HEY! That had better not be butter!”. I was caught, but caught doing what is what I was really wondering. After a lecture and a drizzle of Extra Virgin Spanish Olive Oil the dish was finished and remained one of our top selling Tapas.

I learned something from this little butter vs olive oil outburst, I realized this was more a lesson of economics and a woman’s childhood. There is a time and place for butter in Spanish cooking, but it’s knowing when to use it and when not to interfere with recipes created by region passed down for generations. Butter was not readily available to just anyone, today however has been welcomed into modern Spanish cuisine.

Just beware of the lady from Barcelona.

Thanks for being here!