I'm conflicted about this book. I've read a lot of food history and deep-dives on a single ingredient quite a bit recently, and Extra Virginity is a bit outside that mold, while offering many similarities. Oddly enough, I feel like Extra Virginity lays on Mueller's passion for olive oil a little to thick, but also focuses too heavily on the fraud in the industry. I think it's a valuable read, but it's both too much to read and not in-depth enough. I didn't feel sated by this book, but I did scrutinize my olive oil labels a bit more closely.

I appreciate the investigative journalism that Mueller undertakes towards olive oil. I found myself sympathizing for the fraudsters a bit, which I'm sure was his intention. Mueller tells the intertwined cops-and-robbers story of olive oil from all possible angles: the fraudulent producers, the laundering import/exporters, the intentionally-ignorant mega buyers, the tasting experts, the growers' associations, the honest farmers, and the investigators.

On its own merits the investigative journalism would be a compelling read for me. It doesn't age as well as a more focused look at the olive oil itself, but I think it would be an appropriate piece of long-form journalism. However, about half the book is also dedicated to a deep-dive on olive oil. Oddly enough, Mueller's own passions for good olive oil feels like a misfit to this, especially odd to me, as someone who picked up the book for the deep-dive aspect of the book.

I don't think the deep-dive into olive oil is tacked on or disingenuous. Mueller really is that passionate about olive oil. But tonally, there's something weird going on here. I think writing in such a way that elicits sympathy for the fraudsters, while simultaneously extolling the virtues of untainted oil feels like a chimera wrote this book. How can Mueller, an initiated aficionado of olive oil, cast the people actively undermining his passion in such a positive light? I get that journalism dictates presenting the story from all angles, but he clearly is not a dispassionate actor here. And while his writing shows that he is able to present all sides with genuine emotion, it gives me an uneasy feeling just how well he is able to do so.

I wish Extra Virginity were two separate books. This is a case where the parts are greater than the sum of the whole. I understand the need to explain why olive oil fraud is worthy of our attention, but his esoteric ramblings on the subtleties of olive oil feels too unfocused for this purpose. Again, I love his deep-dive into the virtues of olive oil, but if this were merely to support the investigation, it's too much.