I bet you saw swaying blue waters and almost-cobalt skies, ripe, techno-colour fruits and vegetables, stacked in an almost embarrassing kaleidoscope of colours. I bet you saw the orange-red sun filtered through your fluttering eyelids, the silver-blue flash of a fish, the calming white of sun-baked stone. And I bet you saw the blistering-brown bark and metallic-silver-green leaves of an olive tree, one of few products that transcend religion, nation and economic development, all around the Mediterranean. Without the olive the Mediterranean is unthinkable.

Yet, it comes as a shock how little most of us know about the tree, the fruit it produces and the oil that flows from that. Olive oil must rank up with the computer as one of those oddly familiar household products that all of us use everyday, yet that we don’t understand the first thing about. In fact, most of what we ‘know’ is just plain wrong.

Which is why we created our olive program, to teach food-loving visitors more about the olive, high-quality extra-virgin olive oil and the culture and cuisine that produce them. And like everything we do, we’ve worked hard to tear down the formal walls that used to compartmentalize the many facets of the olive, from agriculture to cuisine, history to geography, from the technical prowess of the modern producer to the guarded superstition of yesterday’s farmer. By taking a multi-disciplinary approach, you’ll be able to see the olive for what it truly is, the miracle of the Mediterranean.

And why Puglia? Because Puglia produces more olive oil than any other Italian region. Olive oil is the real base of the cuisine here, the first and last ingredient that goes into just about every dish, even the sweet ones.

And like everything we do at our schools here in Puglia, it’s not just enough to utilize our local cultural and agrarian riches, but to always strive to re-enforce them and make them better. By coming to Puglia to study olives and olive oil, you’re not just learning about olives and olive oil and how to cook with them, but you’re actually playing a part in a grass-roots movement designed to protect this endangered Italian crop.

Yes, as a class you’ll vote on your favourite oils for the week, but we’ll be giving a report card to the producers that didn’t make the cut. You’ll meet the growers and be able to tell them first-hand why you buy the oils that you do, what you look for in trusted oil, and what they could do to make their oil more accessible to your local market. You’ll learn to taste-really taste- olive oil, not just for pleasure but to ascertain quality. And you’ll learn to cook with it, some of the healthiest and most satisfying dishes on earth.

If you’ve ever wanted to enrich your life through your cooking and improved health, all while making a difference, especially to a part of the world that you already love, please continue on, as to why our olive program could be right for you.

Reserve your place now!