Olives101.com

By Marie Vasari,
Herald Staff Writer.

Founder sells company to fellow fan of liquid gold

Betty Pustarfi has made a living in the oil trade.

The kind pressed from olives, not the other kind. For a dozen years, she’s been on a gastronomic mission to educate the world about olive oil, hosting seminars and tastings and explorations.

She’s spent the past few decades fairly obsessed with the gold-green hues and the fruity bouquets of olive oils from around the world.

As president and founder of Strictly Olive Oil — a company devoted to olive oil exploration, education and marketing — Pustarfi sponsored tastings for trade associations, such as the National Association of Specialty Foods, chefs at the American Culinary Federation’s national convention and the National Association of Catering Executives. She’s lectured and written articles on the subject.

And she pioneered the use of the palate as the industry’s best classroom, setting up the first comparative tasting event at Jones & Bones Gourmet in 1985.

At the time, she recalls, she went around buying up bottles of olive oil from every market and health food store in Santa Cruz County, then imported an International Olive Oil Council-tested olive oil.

The IOOC-tested olive oil, which won hands-down, sold by the caseload that weekend.

“In the U.S., an oil can be called ‘triple virgin,’ ‘exhaustively virgin,’ or whatever strikes the producer’s fancy or sense of humor,” said Pustarfi. “Certainly not standards.”

Pustarfi set up the first olive oil tasting bar at The Bountiful Basket in The Crossroads, and participated in the Monterey Wine Festival, the yearly TomatoFest, Slow Food events and gastronomic festivals.

She was one of the first members of the California Olive Oil Council but later left the organization to avoid any indication of preference of California vs. imported oils.

She toured groves in Tunisia; tasted oils in Australia, France and Turkey; and traveled the world to speak to organizations about U.S. trade opportunities.

Now, after a dozen years, the Pebble Beach resident has sold her business for an undisclosed price to Nancy Ash, a Castro Valley-based specialty foods marketing consultant who specializes in olive oil.

Ash’s professional interest in olive oil began in 1993 while employed by Manicaretti, an importer of artisanal Italian foods. She has trained as an olive oil taster and tasting panel leader in both the United States and Italy, and has served on the COOC’s tasting panel since its inception in 1998. She has an extensive background in specialty food sales and marketing. She is in the process of developing a new Web site for Strictly Olive Oil, which will continue the educational focus and outreach, plus include recipes.

“The perfect person,” says Pustarfi, “to not only carry out, but advance, the Strictly Olive Oil mission.”

As to what’s next, Pustarfi says she’s thinking of returning to her first love, even above olive oil, which is words.

She’s considered doing a “Poor Betty’s Hubris,” a la “Poor Richard’s Almanac,” is putting together what she describes as “a box-type, day-by-day calendar with my own particular brand of day-by-day, 74 year time-tested humor,” and is re-examining a book of poems she wrote in the 1950s.

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