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Unplated with Antonio Diaz — 44:29

The Founder Who Made Olive Oil Cool: Aishwarya Iyer

August 21, 2025

Most of us cook with olive oil every single day but how much do we actually know about what’s in the bottle?

Aishwarya Iyer is the founder of Brightland, a company that has reimagined olive oil by working with small California growers to produce extra-virgin oils held to some of the strictest standards in the world. What began as a curiosity about the foundation of most of our dishes became a mission to bring transparency, craft, and beauty back to something we take for granted in the kitchen.

In this conversation, Antonio talks to Aishwarya about her journey from India to Houston to New York to Los Angeles, the challenges of building in agriculture, and why design and art are as essential to Brightland as the oil itself. Aishwarya also shares the practices that helped her slow down and learn to love Mother Earth.

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