Twenty years ago, when chef Shinobu Namae cooked at the acclaimed Italian restaurant Acqua Pazza in Tokyo, he had trouble selling dishes made with olive oil, one of the cuisine's featured ingredients. Customers frequently asked him to omit it from their order.

Greeks have used the “golden elixir” to enhance beauty for more than 4,000 years, Cleopatra used it in her bathing routine, and today celebrities Julia Roberts, Emma Stone and Gwyneth Paltrow swear by olive oil skin treatments.