The chef's battle after ONLY Oil

“My name is Juan Vargas, and I’m a chef.” When cooking is a choice, there’s no room for half measures. The man from Muka, sharp features, a sailor’s beard, a Basque nose despite being from Almería, doesn’t hesitate when introducing himself. Not now, nor when he dropped out of university in Granada and enrolled at the Hoffman School in Barcelona, ​​nor when he joined the legendary Pastisseria Baixas because he couldn’t afford the specialized pastry course. Nor did he hesitate when he turned down a Robuchon project in Paris to go to the small town of Laguiole, without speaking French, to work at the restaurant of the man who got up at 4 a.m. to go to the market: Michel Bras.

Today, he's the one doing it. Besides his visits to the San Martín market in San Sebastián, several times a week he wakes up at 5 a.m. to go to the Saint-Jean-de-Luz market in the French Basque Country to buy different varieties of fruit and vegetables that he'll use at home and in the kitchen of Muka, which overlooks the Urumea River from the basement of the Kursaal. Before this, there was Mugaritz. A lot of Mugaritz. He immersed himself in Aduriz's world and ended up running his kitchen for four years.

His name is Juan Vargas, and he's a chef. But he's also a producer of extra virgin olive oil.

SOLO Aceite was born from a death. That of her grandfather, Juan Antonio. It was sudden. The olive grove that survived him was a safe passage through mourning. With the family olives from Baños de la Encina, in Jaén, she and her sister Ana began a way to honor his memory, an intense and elegant one, with an ending as bitter as life sometimes is, a way to soak up the flavors of bread and which is, therefore, one of the best there can be.

For Juan, learning is a driving force, so he embarked on several specialized courses in olive oil, including a master's degree. The family tradition grew, as did the quality of his oil. SOLO Picual is a fresh and oily awakening, and his unfiltered Picual Fugaz, a blend of Basque and Andalusian green, sells out as soon as it hits the market.

SOLO is not just its oil

And as one glass of wine at Muka leads to another, the trail of olive oil led him to farmers who were restoring centuries-old olive trees, committed to the recovery of unique, native olive varieties. This is how he came across Mikel Izaguirre and his family in Lantziego, in La Rioja Alavesa, who work with the Arroniz variety, known as the northern olive; and Eder Merino, a history professor who returned to the countryside to make the most of his family's olive trees in Bargota (Navarra). With these trees, they have produced their own SOLO Arroniz olive oil in different years.

There are more, all dedicated to traditional cultivation. José Antonio García, owner of small plots of Arbequina, Brava, and Mansa olive groves in Galicia, filled the bottles of SOLO Arbequina in 2022. His SOLO Negral comes from the Barcedana Valley in Lleida, where agricultural engineer Ivan Caelles takes care to revitalize trees left to their own devices. All the blossoms of the La Loma region in Jaén are captured in SOLO Frantoio, produced in 2024 with this variety originally from Tuscany, which the Jiménez brothers harvest at the Posadas Ricas estate.

Some sell their olives, others their oil. Most are relatively young, heirs to a family legacy, but also a cultural one. Believing in its importance, including its social and environmental value, is essential for Vargas, since the profitability of this model is lower than intensive farming.

Therefore, their main objective is to "add value to something that is already very special and thus help farmers by giving them greater visibility through SOLO. That each of these products not only reaches the consumer, but is also recognized and appreciated for what it truly represents."

Cornicabra, Lechín, Empeltre, Picudo, Farga, Royal… The list goes on. The possibilities are as numerous as the varieties in Spain, which are more numerous than one might think. “There are around 220 types, but only two are mentioned at best. I believe that every household should have at least four or five different types of oil, so they can choose the most suitable one depending on what they're cooking.” Four or five, when in reality, at most, people have one for frying and another for “cooling down.”

The fact that Spain is the world's largest producer of olive oil clashes head-on with this lack of knowledge. "Knowing the difference between extra virgin olive oil and virgin olive oil is fundamental, as is recognizing the olive variety," Vargas asserts. This is another of his battles: "Why not give them the same importance as grape varieties?"

Fat or sauce?

You can spot Juan from Almería among the trays of Muka's Josper oven, turning vegetables and pieces of fish. He's also presenting wines from small producers, another of his passions. Here and there, bottles of SOLO add a touch of color to the space. And to the dishes. "Extra virgin olive oil is much more than just a fat; I see it more as a sauce," he explains. Let's remember that, above all, Juan is a chef.

He says that a splash of his Picual olive oil is fantastic with natural yogurt, as well as with figs and mint or grapefruit with elderflowers. They've collaborated with Rooftop Smokehouse and Kaitxo chocolates. At Hola Coffee, they add SOLO's Arbequina to their coffee; at La Sosenga in Barcelona, ​​they season a flan with a Chantilly cream and vanilla using his Verdial; and Carles Pérez, from the Berbena restaurant, and a former colleague at Xavi Franco's Saüc and Bras, doesn't hesitate to add his Negral to a tuna dish with cherries.

It's no coincidence that SOLO aceite is distributed in places like these. Specialty coffee shops, small wine shops, and unique restaurants all share a common philosophy. Furthermore, "these channels allow us to give prominence to the product and the producer," says Juan, "and ensure the profit margins for each link in the chain." Because if there's one debate that ignites when talking about olive oil, it's the price: "It should be high enough for the farmer to make a decent living. Whether that price is fair or not depends on how the entire production and distribution chain is managed." They handle the latter directly.

Each 500ml bottle of SOLO costs around 21 euros. Behind it are many names, each with its own unique story. In Baños de la Encina, it's Juan's uncle, José Luis, who manages the olive grove. "He doesn't have much time left before retirement," Juan laments, "and taking over is complicated." But that will come later. Right now, they're pursuing the Lechín variety from Granada. They've already found a lead that has taken them to some young farmers in the Alpujarra region, and if all goes well, there will soon be new additions to their Singulares collection.

His name is Juan Vargas, and he's a chef. Besides being a producer, he's also a passionate advocate for olive oil. In short, Juan is many things. His motto is, "Less croissant and more olive oil with bread." Of course, there should be plenty of variety to choose from.