`Online Olive Oil School Goes Live with First Session on Chemistry - Olive Oil Times

Online Olive Oil School Goes Live with First Session on Chemistry

By Michael Goodwin
Jan. 15, 2014 10:53 UTC

Olive oil pro­duc­ers, food indus­try pro­fes­sion­als and enthu­si­asts from nine coun­tries met online Friday in the first ses­sion of the International Olive Oil School. Renowned olive oil con­sul­tant and taster Dr. Richard Gawel led the inau­gural course of the unique online plat­form from Australia, broad­cast­ing a live lec­ture and simul­ta­ne­ous mul­ti­me­dia pre­sen­ta­tion for global view­ers. The sold-out sem­i­nar, Testing and Tasting: Understanding Olive Oil Chemistry,” was the first in the school’s expand­ing pro­gram of courses taught by lead­ers in the olive oil indus­try.

Gawel, who reg­u­larly con­ducts sem­i­nars and work­shops in basic and advanced olive oil tast­ing, blend­ing, and show judg­ing spoke on olive oil chem­istry as it relates to fla­vor and qual­ity. As a mem­ber of the tech­ni­cal com­mit­tee of the Australian Olive Association, Gawel imparted his advanced sci­en­tific knowl­edge of olive oil to view­ers from Turkey to Taiwan, the US to the UK.

Seminar atten­dees received tast­ing sam­ples and six offi­cial” cobalt blue tast­ing glasses in advance, and live-tasted the sam­ples with Gawel’s instruc­tion. Using the tast­ings to illus­trate his work­shop, Gawel’s course was an intel­lec­tual and sen­sory expe­ri­ence. Drawing on the unique inter­face, Gawel was able to answer live ques­tions from par­tic­i­pants through­out the ses­sion.

International Olive Oil School founder Curtis Cord, who intro­duced Gawel’s pre­sen­ta­tion from the United States, called the ini­tia­tive a school designed to reach more peo­ple than ever before with advanced instruc­tion on all aspects of olive oil, and to pro­vide a mod­ern forum for shar­ing ideas on this vital sub­ject.” Consultant and taste panel leader Dr. Antonio G. Lauro leads the school’s next sem­i­nar stream­ing live from Calabria, Italy on olive oil defects and qual­ity assess­ment.

Cord said in the next few weeks the school will be adding more inter­ac­tive online classes to its grow­ing cur­ricu­lum includ­ing advanced pro­grams in olive oil qual­ity and sen­sory assess­ment.

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