Regional Institute of Wine and Oil

Sicily.L'Isola dell'Olivo, Gourmand Awards

Sicily. The Island of the Olive", edited by Andrea Zanfi, created in collaboration with IRVOS and published by Salvietti & Barabuffi publishers, wins the Gourmand Awards 2014, Food Magazine section.(http://www.cookbookfair.com/index.php/gourmand-awards/winners-2014-gg)

A book, where the images, of the highest value, of real works of art, all unpublished, taken by five professionals: Claudio Brufola, Vincenzo Brai, Paolo Spigariol, Giuseppe Leone and Carlo Giunta, merge with the eight signed essays by: Giuseppe Fontanazza, Gaetano Basile, Maria Concetta di Natale, Giuseppe Barbera, Enza Cilia, Giovanni Lercker and Luca La Fauci. A creative pictorial composition, made up of professionalism and specific skills that give added value to this volume. Starting from the extraordinary introduction of Councilor Cartabellotta, who recalls the wise words written in the Mediterranean Breviary by the Russian poet Predrag Matvejevic: “As far as the olive tree is, there is the Mediterranean”.

A work where science and culture merge, capable of pushing the reader to reflect on the value, often forgotten, that this thousand-year-old plant has assumed over time, which has always been intended to protect and safeguard the Sicilian territory and which more than any other what identifies that peasant culture that is an integral part of this land. Pages and pages permeated with encounters with men, stories, legends and popular beliefs, but also the health-promoting characteristics of oil and the health-promoting effects of the Mediterranean diet. A mosaic built around the olive tree and its high quality fruits.