Brooklyn, NY – Philosophy Foods teams up with New York importer, Columbia Cheese and San Diego distributor, Aniata Cheese to present a curriculum on pairing Spanish table olives with cheeses on Thursday, July 27th at 10am at the American Cheese Society Conference (ACS) in Denver.
David Yourd and Karrie Kimble began educating the specialty food community on table olives by Aceitunas Losada when they launched Philosophy Foods in 2014. “When we tasted the olives with customers, they did not know why an olive was green, brown or purple or how it was cured,” says Yourd. “In response, we created ‘Olive U’ classes at Larkin Cold Storage’s Barnyard Collective, Culture Magazine’s Counter Culture and for east coast cheese shops and guilds. The response was positive and we are excited to fill 240 seats at the ACS conference.”
Building the Olive + Cheese Pairing Playground includes the history of table olives in Spain and in their current food culture, Spanish foods in the U.S. and information about harvest and curing. David Yourd will lead a tasting of traditional and heirloom Spanish olive varieties. Jonathan McDowell from Aniata Cheese will pair olives with 2 domestic cheeses from the Midwest and Glenn Hills will pair 2 alpine style imports from Columbia Cheese.
Olives are an important category in specialty retail, providing both volume and margin. According to Glenn Hills from Columbia Cheese, “the goal of our ACS session is to elevate cheesemongers’ knowledge of table olives and create awareness that provenance and flavor are important things to consider when building cheese boards.”
Aceitunas Losada grows, cures, packs and exports 10 Spanish olive varieties to the United States including typical Spanish olives like manzanilla, arbequina and gordal. Losada also offers unique varieties that are rarely seen in Spain, let alone in the U.S. like cornicabra, aloreña and the commercially extinct, zorzaleña. Losada cures olives in both the conventional curing method with lye as well as the natural method with salt & water.
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Aceitunas Losada grows, cures and packs table olives in Carmona, Sevilla, Spain. A third generation family company, Luis Losada is the Operating Partner. Losada olives are available in the U.S. through Philosophy Foods.
If you would like more information about Losada’s farm to “table olive” movement or “Olive U”, please contact Karrie Kimble at (773) 575-4836 or karriekimble@philosophyfoods.com.
Source: Philosophy Foods
