Furtuna Skin's Agatha Relota Luczo Pitches Extra Virgin Olive Oil in the Kitchen

Agatha Relota Luczo, chief executive officer and founder of the beauty brand Furtuna Skin, has published recipes under the banner Wildly Potent Kitchen, all of them built on extra virgin olive oil drawn from her family estate in Sicily. Among the dishes are blueberry muffins, cottage cheese pancakes and an olive oil cake.

Relota Luczo, a former model who is also an olive oil sommelier and a children's book author, said she cooks, bakes and roasts exclusively with extra virgin olive oil, a habit she traced to her mother's kitchen. She argues it is the only oil anyone should cook with, describing it as an ingredient that carries nutrients into food and draws nutrients out of vegetables in a form the body can absorb.

The pancake recipe carries a personal tweak: a shot of extra virgin olive oil stirred into the batter, which she said makes the result silkier and smoother.

With her husband Steve Luczo, she is also a cofounder of Bona Furtuna, the sister company to Furtuna Skin. The Sicilian food line sells artisanal pantry staples, including a range of extra virgin olive oils, and is stocked by specialty grocers such as Erewhon and The Fresh Market.