About Fat Gold

Fat Gold's olive mill, a sprawling machine that takes up nearly the entire length of a high-ceilinged production space.

In our early days, we farmed a tiny olive grove of our own, right here in the San Francisco Bay Area. Nowadays, we operate our own mill in the San Joaquin Valley, collaborating with other growers to source some of California’s best, most interesting olives.

We take great care with our communication, as we explain our olive oil’s production and properties, how to taste and use it. You can get a feel for that in our Field Report email newsletters, in the zine we pack with every online order, and of course, in our Guide to Extra Virgin Olive Oil. We want to straightforwardly introduce you to the nuances of olive oil, which can be as varied and interesting as wine, beer, or chocolate.

We think great olive oil is for everyone to use every day.

The team

Kathryn Tomajan is Fat Gold’s majority owner. She is an olive oil maker, taster, and educator—and our fearless leader.

Kathryn earned a master’s degree in food culture from the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Pollenzo, Italy. Her thesis explored the opportunities and challenges of New World olive oil. Since then, she has made award-winning olive oil in Australia, New Zealand, and California.

As an olive supply chain and sourcing expert, Kathryn advises food companies bringing products to market. Her clients have included ENZO Olive Oil Company, Pineapple Collaborative, Pot d’Huile, and PRMRY. She is a lecturer at Fresno State’s Jordan College of Agriculture and regularly leads training seminars for the olive oil industry and food professionals.

Robin Sloan is our communications chief. He is the author of the novels Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore, a New York Times Best Seller published in 2012, and Sourdough, a novel about the mysteries and opportunities of food, published in 2017. He also built this website by hand—how’s that for craft!

Bryan Tradup is our operations manager. He has a background in emergency medicine and health care procurement, and he quickly revolutionized Fat Gold’s fulfillment, facilities, and more. He is a fan of cab-over trucks, particularly those manufactured by Isuzu.

Press

We’re included in New York Magazine’s 13 of the Very Best Olive Oils.

Trueself said Fat Gold is “about to be the coolest thing in your kitchen.”

Fat Gold was mentioned kindly in the olive oil buying edition of Why Is This Interesting?

The San Francisco Chronicle included us in their 2021 gift guide.

The sly reference to Fat Gold in this review of coffee subscriptions made us smile.

The San Francisco Chronicle included us in a roundup of upstart Bay Area olive oil makers in 2021.

Edible East Bay included us in an article about networks of support among small olive oil producers in California in 2021.

Zuni Café chef Nate Norris called Fat Gold one of his favorites in an interview with Santé.

Sunset Magazine included us in their roundup of artful olive oil packaging.

New York included us in their 2019 gift guide.

Epicurious declared Fat Gold one of the two best olive oil subscriptions.

Eater wrote about our zine!

Gastropod spent time with us—in the grove and the mill!—for this wide-ranging episode, all about olive oil.

Edible East Bay wrote a lovely feature just after our launch.

Berkeleyside wrote the first piece ever about Fat Gold back in the spring of 2017.

You can sign up to receive our occasional Field Report, which includes harvest updates, olive oil intel, and first dibs on flash sales: