Olive Oil Sommelier Program Heads to London

Renowned experts will lead par­tic­i­pants on a jour­ney through the world of olive oil in the Olive Oil Times Education Lab’s Sommelier Certificate Program, return­ing to London.

The course will con­vene January 22 – 26 at the Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE) in Bloomsbury, adja­cent to the University of London cam­pus.

The five-day course includes olive oil sen­sory assess­ment, pro­duc­tion and milling, health and nutri­tion, culi­nary appli­ca­tions, farm­ing best prac­tices, qual­ity assur­ance and advanced tast­ing tech­niques.

The pro­gram direc­tor, Curtis Cord, said stu­dents were in store for an unri­valed edu­ca­tional expe­ri­ence designed to fos­ter a deep under­stand­ing of olive oil qual­ity and appre­ci­a­tion. Cord devel­oped the pro­gram with the late Dorothy Cann Hamilton, founder of the International Culinary Center.

While stu­dents of the som­me­lier pro­gram have included such diverse pro­fes­sion­als as pro­duc­ers, mar­keters, importers, mer­chants, food buy­ers, qual­ity-con­trol man­agers, chefs, jour­nal­ists and lawyers, Cord said the pro­gram is designed for every­one con­cerned with olive oil qual­ity. There are no pre­req­ui­sites for the course.

Nearly 400 have com­pleted the acclaimed pro­gram, join­ing a grow­ing inter­na­tional net­work of experts and edu­ca­tors. Many have gone on to launch their own edu­ca­tional ini­tia­tives, author books, pro­vide con­sult­ing ser­vices and develop pro­grams to fos­ter a greater under­stand­ing of mat­ters relat­ing to olive oil qual­ity, cul­ture and usage.

Enrollment for the London pro­gram is open on the Olive Oil Times Education Lab web­site.