Local olive oil business offers educational workshops
Gail Todaro, the creator of Gail Todaro: OliveWorks.
Gail Todaro brings experience with five workshops
– Gail Todaro: OliveWorks, which started in January, is bringing a blend of education, passion, and excitement to the Central Coast with five diverse workshops. Owner Gail Todaro is a Level Two Olive Oil Sommelier who has gained her experience from internationally renowned institutes.
“Through Gail Todaro: OliveWorks, I offer workshops for consumers to explore their relationships with olive oil by elevating their palates to taste for quality, and to creatively add high-quality olive oil to their everyday cooking. My business is local, and one of my goals is to support small local olive oil and wine producers to drive their businesses forward,” Todaro said.
There are five workshops that community members can choose to attend. For an introduction, there is Olive Oil 101: Tasting for Quality, for guests to learn the differences between olive oil grades and learn how to describe an olive oil tasting. Olive Oil 201: Deeper Dive into Your Relationship with Olive Oil is the next step to learn how to incorporate olive oil into culinary masterpieces and more about the science of olive oil production.
There are also specialty workshops for those wanting to learn more about a specific aspect of olive oils. For those interested in the nutritional side of oils, the EVOO & You: The Hidden Health Benefits of Extra Virgin Olive Oil is focused on how to utilize olive oil as a flavoring tool, the different types of farming methods, and the nutritional science behind it all. A culinary-focused workshop is Savory Sundays: A Tree to Table Culinary Experience, where guests make five small dishes and learn how to pick an olive oil for a healthy meal and learn about the smoke points. The Wine Lovers Guide to Pairing with Olive Oil brings together wine, olive oil and food in a sensory experience and the opportunity to converse with the wine team, chef, and Todaro.
The set-up of a tasting experience with Gail Todaro: OliveWorks.
Todaro also offers customizable workshops for interested producers and will soon host tours and lunches at olive oil production sites.
“Workshops can accommodate from 12 to 25 participants depending on the location’s meeting space. The price point of each workshop is determined by collaborating with the host producer, but we try to keep it in the range of a nice wine tasting, and most producers give their club members a discount,” Todaro said.
Todaro and her husband moved to the Central Coast from San Jose in 2010 after visiting several times, noting that “what captured us [was] the SLO lifestyle.” She began her work in the olive oil industry with local companies, including working as a hospitality and special events manager, and traveling to farms both in the United States and abroad, such as Italy, Spain, and Turkey.
In 2018, she earned her Level Two Olive Oil Sommelier from the San Francisco-based International Culinary Center. The certification included learning about quality assurance, uses of oils in cuisine, the science of health and nutritional benefits of olive oil, tasting over 100 oils as part of a sensory assessment, and more. Todaro takes continued professional development sensory evaluation courses at UC Davis.
Todaro picking olive oils; she earned her Level Two Olive Oil Sommelier certification in 2018.
In addition, Todaro holds a doctorate in organizational behavior and counseling and has hosted public speaking communications events internationally; she also has experience as a marketing consultant. Todaro is a member of Women in Olive Oil, the Downtown Paso Robles Main Street Association, and the Independent Grape Growers of the Paso Robles Area.
“I am currently working with a local homeopathic doctor to develop and deliver a health benefits workshop for non-profits in the region. They will offer the program free of charge to cardiovascular, cancer, nutritional, diabetes, dementia and Alzheimer groups,” Todaro said.
Upcoming workshops include a Wine Lovers Guide to Pairing with Olive Oil, which will be held on Sept. 26 from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at Stilson Cellars. It will cost $55 for members and $65 for nonmembers; more information can be found here. An EVOO & You: The Hidden Health Benefits of Extra Virgin Olive Oil workshop will be held on Sept. 29 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. at Olea Farm. It will cost $45 for members and $55 for nonmembers and more information can be found here.
For more information about Gail Todaro: OliveWorks, visit the website here.
