Arrange for Carol Firenze to speak at your next event. Topics are established in consultation with you. Depending on the size of the audience and number of guests, olive oil tasting and creating fast and easy appetizers can be arranged. Presentation times range from one to two hours.
Contact us for more information.
Here are some sample topics:
Taste Like an Expert
Noted olive oil sommelier, Carol Firenze will teach you how to “taste like an expert”, distinguish the different flavors of extra virgin olive oil and pair foods with olive oil. You will learn how to host your own olive oil tasting party and create fast and easy appetizers drizzled with extra-virgin olive oil.
Fun Facts & Uses of Olive Oil
If all you’re doing with olive oil is cooking, you’re missing out on at least 100 other uses. Carol Firenze presents how to use your Extra Virgin Olive Oil around La Casa (the house) to clean, polish, and preserve; in La Cucina (the kitchen) to drizzle, marinate, sauté, and bake; in Il Bagno (the bathroom) to beautify and treat your skin, hair, and hands; and, in La Camera da Letto (the bedroom) as she encourages you to use your own imagination, while discussing uses as old as civilization itself. With props and demos, be prepared for an entertaining and fun talk.
Let’s Talk about Olive Oil
How much do you really know about olive oil? Did you know that what you think is extra virgin may be refined oil or not even olive oil? Did you know that olives were considered so sacred in the 7th century BC, that only virgins and celibate men were allowed to pick olives? Did you know that the first uses of olive oil were not for cooking? Learn the answers to these questions, in addition to the myriad uses of olive oil. Travel the 8000 year history of the precious substance that Homer named “liquid gold”.
Noted author and olive oil sommelier, Carol Firenze begins by taking her audience through the amazingly rich history of the olive tree and olive oil. She discusses its impact on the history of commerce, religion, health, beautification, and culinary practices. Carol then highlights every day uses and will clearly explain the definitions of Extra Virgin, Virgin, and Olive Oil. She will also teach you how to “taste like an expert’” identify the positive attributes of extra virgin and offers tips to be a smart consumer.
New Year Commitment to Health – More Olive Oil
It’s a tradition to create New Year’s Resolutions. However, we can create resolutions or new habits at any time during the year. Each year. I spend several weeks in Italy, where olive oil permeates every aspect of living. I understand the role that olive oil can play in making each day, week, month, and year even better than the last.
Learn ways to “infuse” olive oil into five of the most common New Year’s resolutions:
- Get Healthy/Lose Weight with olive oil.
- Save Money by replacing expensive creams with olive oil.
- Go Green with olive oil and use olive oil for common household cleaning.
- Enrich your Social Life with olive oil by breaking bread (and drizzling it with olive oil!) with family and friends.
- Learn Something New by expanding your knowledge and exploring the world of olive oil!
Olive Oil: The Secrets of Beauty, Health and Longevity
For thousands of years, olive oil has been dependably discreet, its attributes known and shared by such enlightened individuals as Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine; Democritus, who developed the theory of cause and effect including the cause of longevity; Cleopatra, who concocted herbs with oil to lure her lovers; and many others, such as Sophia Loren, who drink the liquid gold as part of their daily ritual. Yet, only recently has the secret really been told. Carol Firenze will share secrets from the dawn of civilization, through the Renaissance to present day.
EVOO & U
Developed for students in elementary, middle and secondary schools, Carol Firenze offers a bit of history, interesting uses of olive oil and the taste test.