Olive oil has become a new culinary trend, elevated by high quality and new flavor profiles. Keeping in stride with this fast-growing industry, the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) and the UC Davis Olive Center will jointly present the seminar, “Olive Oil Flavor & Quality: Next-Generation Benchmarks for Specialty Retail, Supermarkets & Foodservice.”
A new kind of seminar on olive oil quality
The January 12 event at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone in California’s Napa Valley, will immerse retail, food service, production and distribution professionals into the new world of olive oil quality.
The first of its kind to target this audience, the seminar will satisfy the need for accurate facts and information about olive oil quality, according to Dan Flynn, executive director of the UC Davis Olive Center. Prompted in part by the number of inquiries the Olive Center receives about olive oil quality, the event couldn’t be more timely — and it’s nicely scheduled just before NASFT’s 2012 Winter Fancy Food Show in San Francisco.
Olive oil experts representing the United States, the Mediterranean region and Australia will be featured, sharing insight that will help those in the growing retail and foodservice market make sense of good versus poor quality oils.
Topics range from why a product labeled “extra virgin olive oil” may be a lower grade, and how retailers can protect themselves and their customers, to ways to boost sales and how leading chefs are pairing quality olive oils with foods.
Flynn hopes the event will give the audience “some real tools to take control of the quality to take back to customers,” such as what they need to identify in the product specifications when they order, and if and how frequently they should test the product. Participants will also learn how to help customers see the value of olive oil products. The seminar is limited to 130 participants and costs $295.
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