`Madrid Fusión Shines Light on Spanish Olive Oil - Olive Oil Times
enEnglish
enEnglishfrFrançaiselελληνικάdeDeutscheitItalianozh-CN中文ptPortuguêsesEspañoltrTürkçehrHrvatskija日本語hiहिंदी
enEnglish
enEnglishfrFrançaiselελληνικάdeDeutscheitItalianozh-CN中文ptPortuguêsesEspañoltrTürkçehrHrvatskija日本語hiहिंदी

Madrid Fusión Shines Light on Spanish Olive Oil

By Caroline J. Beck
Feb. 6, 2015 09:13 UTC

Madrid Fusión 2015, Spain’s pres­ti­gious culi­nary event, con­ducted three days of cre­ative show­cases, culi­nary demon­stra­tions and pre­sen­ta­tions in Madrid, this week.

From cen­ter stage pre­sen­ta­tions by world-class chefs and edu­ca­tional class­room tast­ings to a mul­ti­tude of vari­etals on dis­play from around the coun­try and a juried cook­ing com­pe­ti­tion, the show demon­strated that extra vir­gin olive oils from Spain con­tinue to gain greater appre­ci­a­tion among those most famil­iar with the ingre­di­ent.

On the conference’s first day, extra vir­gin olive oil was cen­ter stage with chef María José San Román’s pre­sen­ta­tion ​“Un Aceite Para Cada Plato” (An Oil for Every Dish). While the chef’s pre­sen­ta­tion was the only olive-oil cen­tric demon­stra­tion, many other chefs show­cased the value of olive oil in their cre­ations through­out the 3‑day event.

Chef Dani Garcia wowed the audi­ence with his pre­sen­ta­tion Texturas Helada, fea­tur­ing olive oil-based savory ice cream cre­ations with truf­fle and Michelin 3‑star chef Pedro Subijana demon­strated lib­eral use of extra vir­gin olive oil in his Bekarki menu from Akelare.

Dani Garcia’s olive oil-based ice cream

In addi­tion to the eight Jaén Selección 2015 pro­duc­ers, many olive oil brands were on dis­play and avail­able for tast­ing from pro­duc­ers includ­ing Abbae de Queiles, La Boella, Dauro, Marqués de Valdueza, and Marques de Griñon. While the selec­tions were dom­i­nantly of the Picual and Arbequina vari­etals, oth­ers like Cornicabra, Hojiblanca and Cuquillo were also avail­able for tast­ing.

“Olive oil is the sin­gle most impor­tant ingre­di­ent in the culi­nary her­itage of Spain, yet many chefs are still unfa­mil­iar with the vari­ety of fla­vor pro­files that olive oil can bring to cre­ativ­ity,” said San Román. ​“We have many vari­eties native to Spain that deserve atten­tion and con­sid­er­a­tion beyond Picual, Arbequina and Hojiblanca. Regional vari­eties like Changelot Real, Royal and Empeltre are just some of the options open to chefs that are ready to exper­i­ment with this amaz­ing ingre­di­ent.”

Olive oil’s promi­nence in Spanish gas­tron­omy book­ended the event on day three when major con­fer­ence spon­sor Makro pre­sented a spe­cial olive oil tast­ing course cov­er­ing the basics of fla­vor pro­files and tast­ing tech­niques; and the Diputación Provincial de Jaén held its XII International Award for Cooking with Olive Oil, using the region’s top-ranked olive oils for 2015, won by Chef Xanti Elias of Restaurante Acanthúm.



More articles on:  , ,

Advertisement
Advertisement

Related Articles