“Ask Matt Caputo” is an ongoing feature where Matt answers commonly asked questions from the market. This week, he discusses the mislabelling of EVOO found in many grocery stores.

Q: I heard that most Extra Virgin Olive Oils found in grocery stores are mislabeled. How so?

A: Last week, 60 Minutes had a big exposé on how 70 to 80% of the olive oils found in U.S. grocery stores are mislabeled, meaning they are not real Extra Virgin grade.

Although it was “breaking news,” this is not new news. Tom Mueller first broke this story in a 2007 New Yorker article titled “Slippery Business.” But even before then, we knew something was not right in the industry. We were seeing incredibly vibrant-green colors in olive oils that tasted flat, stale, and worse.

After years and years of blind taste tests, I can identify between dozens of oils and name the brand and region of production (I’ve even been able to impress my wife, Yelena, with this skill). I’ve learned to put a lot of faith in my nose and palate.

Over the years, any oil whose flavor, aromas, and textures did not add up to the claims on the label were discontinued at Caputo’s. We always eagerly analyze samples for quality before putting products on our shelves.

We do not stop at blind taste tests, however. We wanted to make certain, so in cases where the price seemed too good to be true, we sent the oils in for professional taste tests to Agbiolab where they conduct many gustatory, chemical, and other scientific tests on olives and olive oil. At no small expense, we have had them run a full spectrum of tests—a tasting panel, UV light test, chemical analysis, etc.—on oils we were curious about.

When a study came out by the UC Davis Olive Center that tested 40 popular brands of olive oil showing how the vast majority of them failed the tests to be called Extra Virgin, we were proud—but not surprised—that Caputo’s did not carry a single one of them.

The moral of the story: Even the less expensive Extra Virgin Olive Oils on Caputo’s shelves are the real deal, and those that are more expensive have been selected for a reason and will be worth every penny. The only thing to decide upon is whether you would like a grassy Sicilian, a thistly Tuscan, or a more complex Umbrian oil.

We keep samples open, so patrons can taste each to ensure they are going to enjoy their purchase. So come on in!

Disclaimer: While Matt Caputo is a Certified Cheese Professional and specialty food fanatic, he is not a medical professional, doctor, or certified nutritionist. Please consult with your doctor or other qualified health care professional before making any healthcare decisions, diagnostics or treatment decisions based on Matt’s answers.

“Ask Matt Caputo” is a new, ongoing feature where Matt answers commonly asked questions from the market. This week, he discusses bitters as a cure for a distressed stomach.

Q: I over-ate this Thanksgiving. And with holiday parties and Christmas coming up, I’m wondering if I should look into aromatic bitters to ease my pain. Will they make a difference?

A: Well, I actually have quite a bit of experience with eating too much. If there is one thing I love it is food, and during the holidays, I can’t stand the thought of not having each and every one of my old favorites. On top of that, how could I pass up a new gastronomic experience. Shun a new dish just because I am full? Pah! No chance.

As the years go by, it is slowly but surely getting more difficult to put up with the physical aftermath, though. Over the past year, I have had more opportunities than I am proud to admit to test the curative powers of aromatic cocktail bitters.

As one would learn in our Intro to Bitters class, the history of these elixirs includes wild claims from the producers, purportedly curing everything from flatulence to impotence and absolutely everything in between. Luckily, the FDA cracked down on the “snake oil” side of bitters a long time ago.

However, from my experience, there is certainly truth to bitters ability to aid in digestion. Anytime I have overeaten or I am not feeling tip top in the tummy, I have a nice big glass of sparkling water with a healthy dose of Peychaud’s. Within a few minutes, I feel notably better. It almost never fails. Put 10 to 12 dashes in a small white wine glass, and that ought to do. Yeah, I take it in a wine glass. Why not? It smells incredible.

Obviously, I am no doctor, scientist, or herbalist, so I will leave it to them to tell you exactly which ingredient in these bitters is doing exactly what. But this practice should not seem that strange. Monks, apothecaries, and even grandmas from all around the world have long known the digestive value of things with bitter flavors.

Disclaimer: While Matt Caputo is a Certified Cheese Professional and specialty food fanatic, he is not a medical professional, doctor, or certified nutritionist. Please consult with your doctor or other qualified health care professional before making any healthcare decisions, diagnostics or treatment decisions based on Matt’s answers.

“Ask Matt Caputo” is a new, ongoing feature where Matt answers commonly asked questions from the market. This week, he discusses how the shape of pastas will affect taste and texture

Q: Do various pasta shapes taste differently, or is it just about texture?

A: Different shapes of pasta, even though they might be made by the same brand with the same ingredients, will actually taste differently. Differences in texture will affect how we experience both the taste of the sauce and the pasta. 

Take two examples from the extremes: Capellini (tiny hair-like threads) and Calamaretti (thick squid-like ringlets). Both are made from two ingredients: durum semolina and water. The Capellini threads are cut into shorter and shorter threads by the tooth, but are rarely actually smashed and ground by the tooth before swallowing. The Calamaretti, however, are thick and will have a richer texture as the tooth smashes through and releases creamy textured starches, which are also rich in grain flavor. 

The heavier Calamaretti will lend a creamy, almost porridge-like flavor to the pasta dish. The ringlets are also great at catching large chunks of coarsely hand-ground tomatoes or other large particles, such as vegetable slices, cubes of pancetta, and so on. If you’ve never had it, Maestri Pastai’s Calamaretti will show you that dried pasta can be far better than most fresh pasta. 

Disclaimer: While Matt Caputo is a Certified Cheese Professional and specialty food fanatic, he is not a medical professional, doctor, or certified nutritionist. Please consult with your doctor or other qualified health care professional before making any healthcare decisions, diagnostics or treatment decisions based on Matt’s answers.

I have always said that I love my job at Caputo’s. And I’ve always said that’s it’s because of my endless capacity to learn about and adore cheese, chocolate, and the Old World traditions we support. I certainly do feel a deep passion for all those things, but I think I was wrong about why I have loved my job so much.

Caputo’s opened 18 years ago with a commitment to selling the best imported and locally-produced foods to Salt Lake City and beyond. I was obviously there then, and I’ve been working here since as long as I could lift boxes. But over the last seven years, I started taking on more and more significant responsibility from my dad. As the portions of the business in my hands grew, I started spending less time on the floor. That was less time working with cheese, less time with my dad, and less time with the crew of cheese mongers and sandwich slingers who I had grown to also think of as family—many were, and are.

Last year around this time of year, my dad (semi) retired. It’s taken me that long to realize it, but it actually wasn’t my love for food that made my job the best in the world. It was that I got to hang out with my dad all the time.

Don’t get me wrong, I have found new reasons to be passionate and certainly do better financially nowadays, but as I think about Father’s Day and Tony’s retirement, what I wouldn’t do to just sweep the floor while listening to my dad BS with customers again. Even if just for a week. It’s the small moments that make me proud. Proud to work here. Proud to be Tony’s son.

They always say that you never know what you have till it’s gone, and it’s true. Through all that ambition for our store, I wish I would have known to appreciate what was really going on.

Luckily, he’s only retired and still around and in good health. Now, I just need to find a new excuse to hang out with him so much. I know I’ll make it happen. It’s the rest of you I feel bad for. I am no replacement for Tony Caputo. In so many ways our place will never be the same. But we’ve all learned so much from Tony, and I think that’s the best thing a dad and a boss can do.

Happy Father’s Day, and Happy Retirement to my dad.

For at least the past three years, I ‘ve been preaching that Utah is the bright center of chocolate culture in the U.S. This year, Ritual Chocolate has proven me right by uprooting its entire operation from Denver and transplanted to Park City.

It’s not like Denver is some culinary backwater, where the chocolate and culinary scenes aren’t thriving. Quite the contrary—Denver is a booming foodie town, and Ritual had been adopted with great zeal into the community. Too bad for Colorado that Utah just has too much chocolate gravity for such an excellent company to resist once exposed to it.

Robbie Stout and Anna Davies, the husband and wife who own and operate Ritual, often visited Robbie’s family in Park City, where he grew up. Sure our access to the outdoors is far superior to Denver—we all know that. But I would like to think that after seeing the unparalleled energy and chocolate appreciation from our local food community at Caputo’s 2nd Annual Chocolate Festival, plans were set in motion. Alright, maybe I give myself too much credit. You’ll have to ask Robbie and Anna if you want the whole truth.

Nonetheless, no serious craft chocolate connoisseur would dare argue that Ritual is not one of our country’s Top 5 elite chocolate makers. So whatever the reason for their move, we win.

The other day I had fresh bread made by an incredibly talented friend, Ryan Moore of Moore Bread. He researched and developed yeast strains and milled his own flour. The bread was really quite shocking.

I don’t know if it was that I had never had such good bread before or that it had been so long that I had forgotten. It was so far above and beyond anything that is currently commercially available in Utah including all the fancy artisan bakers.

It is a shame to see talented bakers start a bakery then as they grow distribution far beyond that of old world bakers, they slowly start to make compromises that have caused us foodies to lessen our expectations for the whole bread category.

We all deserve regular access to this transcendent bread made by my friend. Ryan Moore is the only one positioned to give it to us. Not only is he going to use the money to buy a mill so he can source his grain directly from farmers and mill right before baking, but he has the marketing prowess to maintain the branding and command the price point to earn a decent living from baking small amounts of bread.

I have gone over his business plans with him. Here is a rare guy that does not want to leverage his quality into becoming wealthy. Ryan is a guy that just wants to make a good living pushing the quality of this craft back to old world scale.

I selfishly want bread like that in my life.

Question:

You had a cheese tasting in February of last year to compare Comte and Gruyere. Did you keep any notes? What did you decide? I am a Comte fan…so I’m dying to know.

– David Bennett

Answer:

Dear David,

Thanks for your inquiry. I am a huge fan of Comte too. We are cranking for Valentine’s so I will have to keep this quick.

What we found was is milk and cheese made according to European PDO laws are exactly the same on both cheeses. There are many, many producers of Gruyere and many, many producers of Comte (for example Comte is France’s most popular cheese). Some producers are great and some are less great. Therefore the best wheels of Gruyere are better than most wheels of Comte and vice versa. To say which is the best just based on the name is not a holistic comparison. They are essentially the same cheese.

I will say our wheel we just got of Rodolphe Le Meunier 16-18 month Comte is as good as cheese gets! It is a steal at $25.99/lb as it would be at least $32/lb in any other store. The Gruyere we have is from Emmi. Not a bad producer, but a big one. For $15.99/lb it is also a steal. It’s much more at grocery stores. We could easily do this same situation in reverse and buy a show stopping Rolph Beeler Gruyere and get a nice, but more common, Rivoire Jaquemin Comte. However, like you, I am more of a Francophile than a Swiss lover, so we go with show stopping French and value driven Swiss.

I am not known in the industry for making politically correct statements, so my explanation here sounds to me like an annoying cop out. But I assure you it is not. Both cheeses are truly great and were both the same cheese before the borders got redrawn. Great cheese makers and affinuers on both sides.

Hope that helps.

Thanks,

Matt