By Lorrie Baumann

Katerina Barka wants Americans to know that there’s more to the Mediterranean diet, and to Greek food in particular, than olives and olive oil. To really appreciate that fact, though, they’ll need access to products that are authentically Greek rather than “Greek-style,” and that means that somebody’s got to go to Greece and fetch them back to the United States. She says she’s that person, and her company, Olive Roots, is the vehicle she launched at this year’s Summer Fancy Food Show to do that.

Barka herself is as much of a Greek import as the products she’s bringing to the States. She grew up in Greece, went to college there, and came to the U.S. only after she’d graduated from college and needed to figure out what to do next with her life. While searching online for options for further education, she came across a Harvard University postgraduate course in international business, enrolled in the program, and came to Boston. There, she later completed her degree in finance at Boston College and then went to work at as a wealth manager for an American firm.

Six years later, it was an encounter with one of her wealthy clients that changed the direction of her life. She presented him with a bottle of her family’s olive oil. His reaction to the gift, and to the oil itself, sparked a chain reaction that led to her decision to abandon an interesting and successful career in finance for the risky proposition of starting her own business in the food industry. “At that moment, I realized that you can do any job you want, but when you do great, it’s when you’re doing what you love,” she said.

She and her husband, another Greek native that she’d met in Boston, picked up their lives and moved them back to Cyprus, where her husband has family, and then to mainland Greece, which is closer to the farmers who grow her ingredients. She found farmers and artisanal food producers who were making amazing products but who didn’t have the expertise to navigate the bureaucratic requirements of exporting them to the United States. Back in the United States, she found buyers who were willing to sell Greek products to the American market but who had grown frustrated with the difficulties of working with small producers inexperienced in managing an international supply chain. What they both needed, she discovered, was a bridge between the two groups, and that’s the role that she sees for herself and Olive Roots.

Her initial product line, which she’s just started to sell in the U.S., consists of authentic Greek products sourced from small producers who make the foods that comprise the Greek version of the Mediterranean diet, which, compared to the usual American diet, contains more olive oil to salads and other dishes, more fish and less meat. “The Greek diet is full of vegetarian and vegan food options,” Barka said. “More than half the days of the week, we eat vegetarian meals – we just don’t notice, because they are Mama’s recipes.”
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The company’s first products to market include marinated sardines packed in olive oil. “They are a tasty way to eat fish,” Barka said, in addition to containing about 10 meals’ worth of Omega 3 fatty acids per serving.

The company also offers a line of dried mushrooms – both cultivated and wild varieties, including a powdered mushroom line that’s used in cooking to add flavor and umami to dishes – and an Organic Grape Syrup that was named a best food at the Summer Fancy Food Show by the editors of Culture magazine. “It’s a great replacement for honey on pancakes or waffles,” Barka said.

Among other products, Olive Roots also offers EON Pine Honey with Mastic, the MELIMA line of handmade Greek pasta and LACONIAN LEGACY monovarietal extra virgin olive oil from Sparta. The newest release, one that Barka is very excited about, is a dip called Greek Salad in a Jar. All of the products are created from simple, everyday authentic ingredients. Barka said, “There’s nothing weird in any of our jars or packages.”

Most of the farmers who grow the ingredients for the products and the producers who package them for the market are Greek women, Barka said. “It just happened,” she added. “With this team of women, we can only succeed.”

Find our more about Olive Roots by visiting www.myoliveroots.com or email Barka at katerina@myoliveroots.com.