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Food File, Irish Times, Saturday 14 November 2009
 
The freshest olive oil in Ireland?
Marie Claire Digby
IMAGINE YOU’VE BEEN invited to taste some really special Tuscan extra virgin olive oil, the pure unadulterated juice of Frantoio and Leccino olives grown on the slopes of the Lucchese hills that have been picked, milled, bottled and transported to Dublin within 24 hours . . . and then told no, you can’t actually buy any of it – it’s produced in such small quantities that the owners of the olive grove don’t even have enough to see themselves through the year, and around next August will have to resort to buying more oil from their neighbours.
Just as well, then, that the Shannon family, who run Bistro One restaurant in Foxrock, Dublin 18, love to share their bounty, so you’ll find bottles of the very fine extra virgin olive oil they produce at their Italian home in San Gennaro on the tables of their restaurant at every mealtime – until it runs out, that is.
On Wednesday of the week before last, Mark Shannon and his family, two of whom – Kate and Rory – work with him in Bistro One, gathered at their house near Lucca, a former grain store. They harvested 312kg of olives, brought the fruit to a local mill, then packed their suitcases with the fantastically fresh new oil, inviting hefty excess baggage fees, and took the last Ryanair summer season flight out of Pisa so that their customers in Foxrock could, the very next day, try the new oil for themselves – drizzled over warm bread, on salads and certain soups, and to add a finishing touch of freshness to several dishes on the restaurant menu.
“Our goal was to share the experience with our customers,” says Mark Shannon. So the family’s extremely mellow oil, which only at the last minute reveals its traditional Tuscan pepperiness, isn’t yet offered for sale. This year, in their third harvest, the fledgling olive oil makers achieved a 15 per cent yield from their crop, which produced about 50 litres of the precious liquid.
“It should keep us going in the restaurant until about August. I’ve frozen some, to use with Caprese salads, when the tomatoes are in season. If you freeze the oil on the day it’s made, you can take it out and enjoy it later in the year and it will be just like it was on day one.”
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