The International Culinary Center in New York will host the NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition and its Sommelier Certification Program back-to-back this May.
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.
I couldn’t be more pleased to be bringing the event back home to the place it all started.- Curtis Cord, NYIOOC president
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 7th 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.
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