New from La Tourangelle!
Roasted Pistachio Oil
Roasted Pecan Oil
Like La Tourangelle's Walnut Oil and Almond Oil, the Pecan Oil and Pistachio Oil are made with nuts grown in sunny California.

"With an abundance of olive oils and balsamic vinegars, blessed relief came from La Tourangelle's new oils" - The New York Times

"Taster's Choice Hall of Fame, great oil, the best...even the most expensive did not come close" - San Francisco Chronicle

"The pick of the health-conscious set" - USA Today

"You need just a touch to turn something normal into something special" - Los Angeles Times

La Tourangelle's Roasted Pistachio Oil is a 2008 finalist in the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade awards, in the Outstanding Oil category.

�Imagine a walnut oil that tastes like the nuts were pulled right off the fire and cracked in front of you. That�s what you�ll get with oil from La Tourangelle.�
-- Amanda Berne, San Francisco Chronicle

Ms. Berne suggests serving La Tourangelle Walnut Oil on a salad of slightly bitter greens, topped with thin slices of pear, crumbled blue cheese�and walnuts.

Matthieu says, �I hope people will experiment with our walnut oil in risotto, pesto, on fish and grilled meats, in pastries. Pasta with cheese can be transformed from tres blah to tres bien. Try making carrot cake with walnut oil sometime!�
  La Tourangelle

Abraham Lincoln had yet to be elected president when Mr. Morillon and Mr. Bechet founded La Tourangelle, a small animal-powered oil mill, in the idyllic French town of Saumur.

Originally, each French village had a mill that roasted and extracted the oil from nuts gathered by local farmers. La Tourangelle is one of just a handful of these remaining mills that keep this tradition alive. Over the next century and a half, the company refined their production processes and adopted appropriate technologies that honored this artisanal beginning.

In the last decade ownership passed to the Kohlmeyer family, and eldest son Matthieu moved to California's Bay Area to recreate his family's French artisan oil mill. To replicate the century-old equipment, he had to have it custom-made and his American staff was then trained by an oil-roasting artisan from France.

The new oil mill in Woodland, California, produces oil from walnuts grown on the orchard next door. The highest quality nuts are selected, dried naturally in the sun to preserve their natural flavors, hand roasted in cast iron pots, cold-pressed and lightly filtered. These elegant oils each have their own unique flavors.

The cast iron pots used to roast the nuts came from the mill in France, and they are as critical to the process as the artisanal know-how. �If you simply press a fresh walnut, the oil you get is bitter and lacking character. But when the nuts are sun-dried, then roasted just perfectly, the rich flavor of the nuts is brought out in the oil,� explains Matthieu.

In addition to adding a flavor component to foods, walnuts contain omega-3 fatty acid, a polyunsaturated fat that can lower blood cholesterol levels and may reduce the risk of heart disease according to a study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine in 2002. Since La Tourangelle�s oil is not refined and no chemicals are used in the extraction process, these health benefits are preserved in the oil.

A great deal has occurred in the world since La Tourangelle first began handcrafting walnut oil in France, but their traditional process has remained virtually the same. The only difference is that now the oil can be enjoyed fresh from California.
 
To contact
La Tourangelle

Visit our Website
Contact: Matthieu Kohlmeyer
Email us
Phone: 510-970-9960
Fax: 510-970-9964
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