About Us
About Us
From the Slow Food Movement - Know Where Your Food Comes From
Taste – Education – Defense of biodiversity and interaction between food and producers
The History of
Lugano Fine Foods
My name is Elena Lepori, I’m originally from Switzerland but I have been living in Toronto Canada for many years, where I live & work at my own importing Company called Lugano Fine Foods, mostly specialized in Extra Virgin Olive Oils and Aceto Balsamico that we personally seek-out from the different regions of Italy, and by personally visiting each single farm before starting any collaboration.
It was in Sicily more than 15 years ago while staying in an olive growing estate that I discovered my passion and the true meaning of what “extra virgin” olive oil means. This incredible experience led me in 2008 to create my own wholesale importing and distribution company, “Lugano Fine Foods”, whose main objective was, and still is, to bring consumers a new awareness and true appreciation and understanding for high quality extra virgin olive oil.
Later on I decided it was important to further educate myself into this very complex field, and I enrolled at the ONAOO (National Organization Olive Oil Tester) one of the most renowned and recognized school in the world in the field, from 2013 all the way to 2018 where I graduated as a Olive Oil Sommelier - Professional Taster. This education was an important step in order to fully understand not only the all process of olive oil making but most important made me able to select and evaluate with finer criteria only the best product.
How we select products
High Quality & Fully-Traceable
And it is still now days a continuous effort to always learn more about the complex world of real Extra Virgin Olive Oil that I often associate with the complex production of high quality wine, whisky, cocoa, Metzcal, etc. They all are based on the same rules, and that means choosing farms that adhere to a sustainable cultivation method, from small to medium family estate that own and cultivate their own land in a traditional way with love and passion and integrity for what they do, without exploiting and stressing the soil or using pesticide or cloning the varieties on the name of higher production and profits.
These are very different from the mass exploited large industrial farming that are the norm when to supply large exporting company where most oil present major defects so much so that they all must undergo a chemical “processed” called “refinement” to get rid of all the undesirable properties like higher acidity, bad smell etc, then adulterated by mixing different quality grades.
A business aimed only at high volumes production at the deprivation of quality and most important the health benefits of the oil.
Today we also know that the quality and the taste of a product as very important ties with its relative small scale of production, where particular attention is given to each step of the transformation, the zone of production with the variability of the different composition and specificity of each soil called “terroirs”, climate and altitudes, cultivar variety and the time of harvesting, these are all facts that will influence and determine most particularly the variability and the taste of each oil, making each of them very unique and complex.
A very important quality factor is also the total traceability of the product to the source that is the area or zone of production, followed also by a traditional method cultivation and harvesting along with innovative technologies of extraction.
Our small Farm-Estate are in total control of all their production chain from the cultivation of the olive tree to the harvest, to the extraction and conservation of the oil in specialized steel containers at control temperature, free from oxygen, all the way to the final bottling that is only met on demand and the final labelling, without interference or passages of third parties.
Professional olive oil producers that pay extreme attention to every single step of the process extraction of the olive fruit at the proper control temperatures and times, to meet all the Extra Virgin Standard, a finish product that is the pure “juice” of the Olive extracted mechanically without adding any chemical product, so very rich and high in Polyphenol powerful antioxidant components, vitamins, oligo elements, a special source of nourishment, an oil unsaturated that can be completely digested, an energy source that our body can use immediately without leaving any traces in our arteries.
We are proud to offer our clients only the purest olive oils with the widest biodiversity to bring a kaleidoscope of different aromas and taste a joy to use “row” as it is and by the same token to get all the full right healthy benefits from it and to use on all of their finishing plate, changing the balance of each meals by transforming their recipes and everyday ones in true masterpieces!
Alfredo Cetrone
The Cetrone family have been cultivating the olives trees since 1860, a long family tradition handed down through all generations.
Colli Etruschi
A small but extremely efficient small cooperative sees its beginning in Blera, a small town of Etruscan origins in northern Lazio just north of Rome in the province of Viterbo.
Feudotto
Since the very beginning, Feudotto has always focused on enhancing the production of the Extra Virgin Olive Oil in the region of Menfi, Sciacca and Castelvetrano in southern west Sicily.
Frantoio Franci
A family business founded in 1958 by Fernando and Franco Franci when they purchased their first olive grove called Villa Magra. The farm is located in southern Tuscany in Montenero Val d’Orcia on the slopes of Monte Amiata.
Il Borgo del Balsamico
The Estate of Il Borgo del Balsamico is set in a rural area in the province of Emilia Romagna not far from the major county town of Reggio Emilia.
Madonna dell'Olivo
The Azienda Agricola Madonna dell’Olivo is situated in Serre in the Province of Salerno - a region where olive trees have been cultivated for millennia.
Mandranova
A family owned Agricultural Farm and also a very secluded Agriturismo, located in southern Sicily.
Pruneti
The Pruneti family has had a long tradition in cultivation especially in olives growing. Nestled in San Polo in the heart of the Chianti Classico.
Riserva San Massimo
Riserva San Massimo is a natural uncontaminated territory in the pristine natural reserve of Parco del Ticino an area in the Northern part of Lombardy.
Titone
The Titone family organic farm is located inland in western Sicily between Trapani and Marsala. They cultivate 19 hectares of olive grove with 5,000 trees all Certified Organic.