NYIOOC Returns to International Culinary Center

The International Culinary Center (ICC) in New York will host two pre­mier events in May, demon­strat­ing again its lead­er­ship posi­tion in culi­nary edu­ca­tion — espe­cially when it comes to olive oil.

From May 5 to May 9, the school’s fifth-floor stu­dio space will be the set­ting for the judg­ing of the sev­enth annual NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition, the largest and most pres­ti­gious event of its kind.

From May 13 to 18, the ICC will present, together with the Olive Oil Times Education Lab, the 7^th edi­tion of its Olive Oil Sommelier Certification Program — a six-day course designed to empower a gen­er­a­tion of olive oil edu­ca­tors.

For the NYIOOC it will be a return home. In 2013, the Olive Oil Times pub­lisher, Curtis Cord, pro­posed the idea of orga­niz­ing a major olive oil com­pe­ti­tion to the late Dorothy Cann Hamilton, the ICC founder.

“I had hardly fin­ished ask­ing when Dorothy replied ​‘Let’s do it,’ “ Cord recalled at the 2017 NYIOOC press con­fer­ence. ​“That meet­ing changed the course of my life, like so many oth­ers Dorothy encour­aged,”

The NYIOOC was held at the school until 2016 when changes to its floor plan made it nec­es­sary to find another venue. ​“This year, we found a way to return,” Cord explained. ​“And I couldn’t be more pleased to be bring­ing the event back home to the global leader in culi­nary edu­ca­tion and the place it all started.”

Cann Hamilton was also instru­men­tal in estab­lish­ing the Sommelier Program, which has since con­ferred its cer­tifi­cates to more than 170 pro­fes­sion­als at courses in New York, California and London.

“Dorothy under­stood the impor­tance of olive oil in culi­nary edu­ca­tion,” Cord said.”She was one of the great vision­ar­ies of the culi­nary world, and her sup­port for these projects was just another exam­ple of the lead­er­ship cul­ture that con­tin­ues at the school she founded.”

Cord will also lead an edu­ca­tional work­shop for ICC stu­dents dur­ing the week of the NYIOOC event titled ​“What every chef needs to know about olive oil.”

The results of the NYIOOC will be revealed at a May 10 press con­fer­ence at 7:30 PM.

Registration for the som­me­lier pro­gram is lim­ited to 40 par­tic­i­pants. At press time there were 9 remain­ing open­ings and the course is expected to sell out.