`Olive Oil Tour Stops at Britain’s “Taste of London” - Olive Oil Times

Olive Oil Tour Stops at Britain’s “Taste of London”

By Charlie Higgins
Jun. 22, 2011 10:17 UTC

For the sec­ond year in a row, Britain’s annual Taste of London gas­tro­nom­i­cal event will fea­ture the European Olive Oil Program. The cam­paign orga­niz­ers hope its pres­ence at the fes­ti­val will help spawn increased inter­est in the so-called liq­uid gold.”


Spain’s Olive Oil Interprofessional Director Teresa Pérez at the Taste of London festival.

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Olive oil, par­tic­u­larly that of Spanish ori­gin, has grown increas­ingly pop­u­lar among the Brits in recent years. According to Teresa Perez, direc­tor of the Spanish orga­ni­za­tion Interprofesional del Aceite de Oliva Español, sales of Spanish olive oils in the UK have increased by 17% since 2009. This year has proven once again the excel­lent recep­tion of olive oil in the United Kingdom and the enthu­si­asm that Brits are show­ing for this prod­uct. Everyday the pres­ence of olive oil is grow­ing, in their kitchens and in their culi­nary habits,” Perez told sources.

More than 50,000 are expected to attend Taste of London, which will begin June 22 in the British cap­i­tal before head­ing to Birmingham, Nottingham, Manchester and Leicester in the com­ing weeks. The event will come to a close on July 12.

The European Olive Oil Program (or Programa Europeo de los Aceites de Oliva as it’s known in Spain) has orga­nized a num­ber of pro­mo­tional activ­i­ties as part of the mini-tour. Each stop on the tour will fea­ture live cook­ing work­shops explain­ing the dif­fer­ent uses of olive oil in gourmet food prepa­ra­tion. Attendants will receive com­pli­men­tary sam­ples of dif­fer­ent dishes served by pro­fes­sional chefs.

All atten­dants who pur­chase a bot­tle of olive oil will be auto­mat­i­cally entered into a raf­fle to win a five-day trip for two. Winners may choose between olive oil and gourmet food-tast­ing tours of Andalusia or the areas of Cataluña, La Rioja and Navarra. The first 1,000 users to reg­is­ter on the European Olive Oil Program’s web­site will receive exclu­sive copies of a book on olive oil.

The European Olive Oil Program is a joint ini­tia­tive sup­ported by Interprofesional del Aceite de Oliva Español, Spain’s Ministry of Environment and Rural and Marine Affairs (MARM) and the European Commission. With a bud­get of over 16.5 mil­lion euros (US$ 23.8 mil­lion), the pro­gram that began in October 2009 is sched­uled to run for three years, with activ­i­ties planned through­out Spain, the United Kingdom, France, Belgium and Holland.



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