`Pop-up Olive Grove in Sydney - Olive Oil Times

Pop-up Olive Grove in Sydney

By Naomi Tupper
Dec. 7, 2012 11:38 UTC

As part of a national cam­paign to pro­mote olive oil from Spain, Australian Masterchef con­tes­tant Justine Schofield took to the stove to cook up a Spanish style feast for the peo­ple of Sydney recently.

The pop-up style restau­rant affair, set up in the cen­ter of the Sydney CBD, was designed in the style of a Spanish olive grove, com­plete with wooden benches, a stone farm­house, fla­menco dancers and a large sil­hou­ette of the typ­i­cal Spanish bull. Diners were able to sam­ple a wide vari­ety of Schofields’ com­pli­men­tary dishes, served in the tra­di­tional Spanish tapas for­mat of bite size morsels, whilst lis­ten­ing to live music.

Dishes were pre­pared in live cook­ing demon­stra­tions by Schofield and then served to the walk-in guests for break­fast, lunch and din­ner, high­light­ing the fact that olive oil can be used to enhance any meal of the day. Aside from their numer­ous culi­nary uses, Schofield also offered her own tip as to the use­ful­ness of olive oil as a nat­ural make up remover.

All dishes were care­fully designed to high­light Spanish olive oil as the key ingre­di­ent, with a focus on how the prod­uct can enhance the taste of a dish. The tapas style dishes were served along­side crusty bread and addi­tional extra vir­gin olive oil for dip­ping. The specif­i­cally designed dishes included olive oil rice pud­ding with peaches and almonds for break­fast, charred veg­etable salad with prawns for lunch and con­fit of salmon with chorizo crumbs for din­ner.

Schofield, who is an ambas­sador for the Olive Oil from Spain pro­gram, appeared in the first sea­son of Australia’s Masterchef series. She now hosts her own cook­ing show, Everyday Gourmet , appears in cook­ing demos and oper­ates a cater­ing com­pany.

The event was an ini­tia­tive of the Embassy of Madrid in Australia, as part of a national cam­paign to pro­mote Spanish olive oil around the coun­try. Australia is an impor­tant mar­ket for Spanish olive oil export, as one of the main non-EU importers. Spanish olive oil export to Australia has risen over the last year, and it is hoped that con­tin­u­ing pro­mo­tion of the prod­uct will main­tain this strong mar­ket. Australia is a coun­try with a large num­ber of Italian and Greek immi­grants, who tend to choose olive oil from their own coun­try, which in addi­tion to the fact that Australia also pro­duces its own oil, means ongo­ing mar­ket­ing and ini­tia­tives to raise aware­ness are nec­es­sary for Spanish oil to main­tain its place in the mar­ket.


Advertisement
Advertisement

Related Articles