This summer we asked chefs to do something Italians have quietly done for years: pour good olive oil over something sweet and cold. Here's what happened, from a Manhattan gelateria to a racetrack patio and three kitchens up the Hudson.
In Italy, nobody finds it strange. Order a scoop of fior di latte at a good gelateria in Tuscany in the autumn, and there's a fair chance someone will offer to finish it with a thread of new olive oil and a few flakes of salt. The cold mutes the sweetness, the oil blooms as it warms, and the pepper arrives last, like a signature at the bottom of a letter.
We called our summer “Olive Oil, Unexpectedly,” and gave it one simple brief: take Piro out of the salad bowl and put it somewhere no one expects to find it. The chefs we asked took that brief further than we ever could have.
June: the city
It began on June 29 in the West Village, with a Piro gelato created with chef Riccardo Orfino at Pamina Dolce & Gelato, and poured for a small room of editors and friends. Using Piro in the ice cream recipe and also as a finishing touch, our collaboration with Pamina was a first taste, and a first test: would people who love olive oil on bread love it on gelato too? The spoons came back empty.
August: the patio at Siro's
Siro's has been feeding the crowds at the Saratoga Race Course since 1945, and its patio in August is one of the great summer tables in New York State. For one afternoon of the season, on August 7, it became Piro at Siro's.
Siro's Executive Chef Noah Frese is young, precise and unafraid of a good idea. He built three small plates for the patio menu around Piro, and his bar team created two cocktails for the dining room and the patio, each designed to show off the oil rather than hide it.
And to close, pastry chef Julia Aiello served her lemon sorbet, finished with a pour of Piro and a pinch of black lava sea salt. Bright, cold, sharp with citrus and then, slowly, green and peppery. If you ever doubted the idea of olive oil on dessert, this was the plate that settled it.
Three chefs, three soft serves
Saratoga was the start of a longer conversation upstate. With our friends at The Dishing, we asked three restaurants across the Hudson Valley and the Capital Region to create a soft serve for the summer, with Piro as the finishing touch. We gave them the oil and no other rules.
Lil Deb's Oasis, Hudson | Chef Halo Kaya Perez-Gallardo
Yellow tomatillo and ají amarillo ice cream with a peanut-sesame crunch.
“Our inspiration was locally grown seasonal ingredients that capture the energy and essence of Lil Deb's. I'd never seen yellow tomatillos on a local farm list until this summer, and I ordered them right away. The yellow tomatillos have a super melony and floral flavor that is amplified by the bright aromatic heat of the ají amarillo, and the finish of the Piro olive oil also emphasizes fruit and brings a bit of acidity, which is then grounded by the earthiness of the peanuts and sesame seeds.”
— Chef Halo Kaya Perez-Gallardo
Little City Luncheonette, Albany | Chef Arvin Clemente
A vanilla-ube twist with lemon cookie crumble and Piro.
“When I developed this sundae, I knew that I wanted to combine my favorite childhood ice cream flavor, which is ube, with the flavor combinations I crave as an adult. The high notes from the ube and the lemon cookie are balanced with the slight acidity and fruitiness of Piro. Piro is very balanced and has a pleasing taste that complements the ube-vanilla twist and allows the flavor to stay on the palate longer.”
— Chef Arvin Clemente
Familiar Creature, Saratoga Springs | Chef Michele Hunter
Black sesame soft serve with Oreo crumbles, sea salt and Piro.
“After tasting the Piro olive oil, I was immediately excited for this flavor. The mild grassy notes and pepperiness of the olive oil pair so well with the toasty, peanut butter-like notes of black sesame. A sprinkle of sea salt brings it all together.”
— Chef Michele Hunter
What the chefs taught us
Three kitchens, three completely different flavors, and yet the chefs described the oil in almost the same words. Fruit. Acidity. Pepper. Length. In a sweet dish, a great extra virgin olive oil behaves less like a fat and more like a seasoning: it brightens, it balances, and it makes the flavor last a few seconds longer than it otherwise would. It's the same reason a pinch of salt makes caramel taste more like caramel.
It only works with an oil that has something to say. A flat, tired oil disappears into ice cream, or worse, makes it taste of the pantry. A fresh, early-harvest oil, green and peppery, holds its own against sugar and cold. It's why we were so happy to hand these chefs a bottle and step back. More on the sweet side of olive oil in The Sweet Side of Extra Virgin Olive Oil.
Try it at home
- Start with a good, simple base: vanilla, fior di latte or a lemon sorbet.
- Let the scoop soften for a minute so the oil doesn't just slide off.
- Pour a teaspoon of Piro over the top, about as much as you'd use on a slice of bread.
- Finish with a few flakes of sea salt. Eat right away, before the oil and the ice cream have fully met.
Then start experimenting: black sesame, stone fruit, dark chocolate, a crumble of something crunchy. The chefs upstate have already shown there are no wrong answers.
Where to find Piro upstate
Piro is now on the shelf at Franklin Square Market in Saratoga Springs, and online at olio-piro.com. Our thanks to Siro's, Lil Deb's Oasis, Little City Luncheonette, Familiar Creature and The Dishing for a summer we'll be tasting for a while.
Photography: Victoria Sedefian / Dishing.Studio.
