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Abbondanza... translates from Italian to mean "abundance"….Through Oliva Bella we firmly believe there is enough for everyone. Abbondanza strongly supports the commitment to community-sustained agriculture, to connecting people to the food they eat, to the people who grow it, and to each other. |
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Our company shares the values of the Slow Food Movement considering it crucial to help artisan foods survive against big business and fast food industries. We feel that putting a face on the people who make and grow our food will help us pay attention to what we eat. We believe that the quality of life is directly linked to the pleasure of eating in healthy, flavorful ways. Our service is both a personal commitment to health and deliciousness as well as to building community- sustained agriculture. EAT WELL LIVE WELL BE WELL Lea Ann is a Lexington, Kentucky-based corporate consultant whose work has taken her to Italy frequently and for long periods in the past decade. These assignments dovetailed nicely with her passionate, nearly obsessive interest in food, and in Europe’s burgeoning Slow Food movement (an antidote, many hope, to the fast food culture. San Francisco chef and author, Alice Waters, describes the Slow Food Movement as a "delicious revolution.") She identified olive oil as the key element in the Italian cuisine she came to love—one of the most influential factors in making even simple dishes and recipes extraordinary. But not just any olive oil, rather the artisanal oils, the fresh oils harvested by hand and produced by small families whose groves and traditions have been handed down through the generations. |
She started looking for the best. This quest so far has led to three small Italian families who--though their names aren't well-known outside Italy--have the right combinations of experience, favorable settings and traditions, to produce truly distinctive olive oils. The oils she has procured are the families' personal stock--the reserves they typically kept off the market and for their own consumption. An Italian family's personal cache of olive oil is sacred, typically originating from family groves or a trusted friend. Most oils for sale in Italy are the result of blending by cooperative frantoio (olive presses).
Lea Ann felt there was a market for the authentic, simple and first-pressed varieties back home…"The extra virgin olive oils in Italy were the best I'd tasted in my life! They seduce every one of your senses and enhance any and every food you eat." |
 Marta and Lea Ann with customers at the Lexington Farmers' Market |
Marta Miranda, a friend, colleague and partner in other business ventures with Lea Ann, is a college professor who brings with her a deep appreciation for the cultural meaning of cooking and eating with family and friends. Marta's father, Anastasio, was a chef and throughout his life she was in the market and in the kitchen learning to create meals that connected people to food and to each other.
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