April 2020

Bread Dipping Oil The Simple Appetizer Solution

By Morris Raymond

If there is one thing that has taken the country by storm, it is the push to have restaurants do more than just stuff one's face. People are becoming more interested in having taste experiences, and a part of this food revolution is the use of bread dipping oil as an appetizer.

Now, there are probably a number of you out there who might find the notion of bread dipping oil a little overrated and way too played out. Think about how many Italian restaurants, chain or independent, readily made a dipping oil the start of a meal. As time went on, people started trying to copy these recipes and make them at home, which meant that no matter where you went to have a nice Italian meal, you were always face-to-face with bread dipping oil of some type with a veritable amount of little flecks to add flavor.

Well, times have changed. More restaurants are deciding that bread dipping oil is more than just a throw-away start to a meal. It's a state of mind, a conscious way to tantalize the senses and get a person ready for the rest of the meal. In short, bread dipping oil is not what it used to be.

But let's take things back to the home. Many people like to host parties and welcome friends & family into their home for a fun time. Game nights are more popular than ever, and you're hearing more about dinner parties becoming chic once again. If you're hosting one of these shindigs, you want to wow your guests, but you also want to keep things simple. Enter bread dipping oil. It's essential, and it may pay off more than you think. A recent study found that a good appetizer can outshine the main course if done right.

For stellar bread dipping oil, that means one things - quality olive oil.

That's it. It really doesn't have to be complicated. You need fresh olive oil, so that means not the jug that's been sitting in your pantry for months. It also means that you want to try purchasing olive oil that's spent as little time traveling, so buy local. You may not be aware of this, but the United States is becoming a major player in the olive oil world, with production growing and quality rivaling any product coming from outside the country. Buying local also means you know what's going into your olive oil.

Right now, Western eating habits tend to be defined by how much food we can stuff into our mouths, but that's starting to change. Bread dipping oil, as simple an appetizer as it is, is part of this change. Understanding that an appetizer is defined as a first course of a larger meal, this particular appetizer, made from quality olive oil, allows the eater's taste buds to ready themselves for the flavor nuances of each additional course. It turns out that this simple appetizer might not be as simple as we once thought.