Parisian Exploration of New Oils Goes International

Producers from around the world and promi­nent fig­ures of the olive oil mar­ket gath­ered on November 27 at Le Cordon Bleu Paris school for a pre­view of the third edi­tion of Olio Nuovo Days (OND).

The con­cept, ini­ti­ated in 2015, aims at pro­mot­ing the fresh­est olive oils and reveal­ing them to the con­sumer by cre­at­ing a direct bond between chefs, con­sumers and the pro­duc­ers.

OND ​‘Hémisphère Nord’ will be held on January 16 – 20, 2018, pre­sent­ing to the pub­lic over twenty pre­mium EVOO from ten dif­fer­ent coun­tries.

“With more par­tic­i­pat­ing restau­rants and over 25 pro­duc­ers enrolled this year, the con­cept is reach­ing an inter­na­tional audi­ence,” said the founder, Emmanuelle Déchelette. ​“We are expand­ing inter­na­tion­ally. I am thrilled to see Japan enroll in the par­cours. OND is on the right track.”

Among the olive oils exposed at the press con­fer­ence were the new har­vests from Japan, the fea­tured coun­try of OND 2018, along with oils from Italy, Greece, Spain, Tunisia and France.

Spanish pro­ducer and owner of Nobleza Del Sur, Lola Sagra pre­sented her two oils: Premium Arbequina, a bright green del­i­cate oil with intense herba­ceous and fruit aro­mas and Centenarium Picual, well-bal­anced with a sweet entrance in the mouth, slightly bit­ter and spicy.

O‑Med’s owner, Paola Garcia Casas, par­tic­i­pat­ing for the sec­ond time, brought out her new O‑MED Yuzu oil which has a stim­u­lat­ing aroma to flo­ral lime, with over­tones of man­darin and orange.

Casas de Hualdo from Toledo (Spain), pre­sented two oils: Cornicabra, a tra­di­tional vari­etal from the south-west­ern European region, with a del­i­cate bit­ter­ness; and Casitas de Hualdo, a fruity and light blend cre­ated espe­cially for chil­dren.

Olivko is an intense, green, well-fruited Tunisian oil pro­duced in the bare ter­rain adjoin­ing the archae­o­log­i­cal site of Utica. Olivko won the Gold Award at the 2017 New York International Olive Oil Competition.

Many other pre­mium oils were offered for tast­ing such as Henri Mor’s Catalan EVOO, Le Amantine (Italy), Makaria Terra (Greece) and Le Carré des Huiles (France) among oth­ers.

During the January par­cours, renowned restau­rants will be includ­ing in their menus a dish inspired by the selected new oils.

The Spanish chef María José San Román will be host­ing a din­ner with French chef Antoine Heerah at Le Chamarré, Montmartre. Brazilian chef Pérola Polilo will be cook­ing along­side Chef Alan Geaam at his renowned restau­rant AG les Halles.

The Japanese oil, Toyo Olive, was cho­sen by Julien Dumas, the chef of Paris’ emblem­atic gas­tro­nomic tem­ple, Lucas Carton. Dumas will cre­ate a four-course din­ner with dishes designed around the Japanese oil with M. Toshiya Tada, pres­i­dent of the Association of Olive Oil Sommeliers of Japan.

Organizers said it will be the first-time Japanese olive oils are used in a restau­rant out­side of Japan.

Tasting ses­sions in gourmet stores and olive-oil themed work­shops and con­fer­ences are also on the pro­gram.

Afidol’s pres­i­dent, Olivier Nasles will dis­cuss the black fruity oil as a French typ­i­cal­ity and research sci­en­tist, Christophe Lavelle, will talk about the con­tro­versy behind the taste of bit­ter­ness in olive oils.

Dechelette’s con­cept is also fig­ured in the ​‘Evooleum’ guide pro­duced by Mercacei and the Spanish Association of Olive Producing Municipalities.

In part­ner­ship with Mercacei, Madrid will be the sec­ond cap­i­tal of Olio Nuovo Days in 2019. ​“I’m thrilled to be con­tribut­ing to the first edi­tion of OND-Madrid and work­ing along­side Dechelette,” said Peñamil who said the con­cept ​“show­cases the work of the pro­duc­ers and reveals the newest oils.”