
Since 2001
ISTITUTO IRVEA

ARMONIA
Armonia is a brand of international importance around which gravitates a set of activities aimed at identifying, selecting and promoting the realities of excellence in the agro-food, food and tourism-receptive.

INTERNATIONAL OLIVE OIL COMPETITION HARMONY
The International Olive Oil Competition Harmony, now in its seventeenth edition, is still the first and only International Olive Oil Competition that, involving producers, tasters, chefs, foodies and consumers, recognizes and rewards the best international EVOO and their conscious use in oil-food matching.
The competition aims to:
• stimulate and encourage olive growers and crushers to improve product quality by recognising and rewarding the best international EVOIs;
• promote knowledge, conscious use and harmonization of taste in the oil-food combination, through gastronomic competitions between professional chefs, young chefs, foodies and common consumers;
• recognize, reward and promote restaurants, restaurateurs, chefs and all those structures that are distinguished in the correct and rational use and promotion of extra virgin olive oil of excellence in Catering, in Schools of Cuisine and Gastronomy in various countries.
The competition ARMONIA - International Olive Oil Competition, born in 2006 with the collaboration of ALMA, the School of Italian Cuisine, directed by Chef Gualtiero Marchesi is the first and still the only oil competition that in various ways involves producers, tasters, chefs, foodies and consumers.
The Competition, aimed at recognizing, rewarding and promoting the best international EVOO and their use in the combination of oil and food in the kitchen, in the catering and in the Schools of Haute Cuisine and Gastronomy in the various countries, is divided into 4 sections:
ARMONIA OLIVE OIL COMPETITION: Evaluation and sensory selection of all oils in competition
ARMONIA IN THE KITCHEN: A competition between chefs in the creation of new and innovative culinary preparations with all the awarded oils
ARMONIA PACKAGING: A competition to award the best packaging, label and graphic presentation among the oils in competition
HARMONY PEOPLE CHOICE: A competition reserved for non-expert consumers in the sensory evaluation of EVOO
The ARMONIA Competition, thanks to the intervention of a Notary, guarantees neutrality in the procedures of anonymization of samples in all the various phases of evaluation, until the award ceremony to be held in Parma in the spring.
The award-winning oils will be able to bear the appropriate mark to be affixed to the company’s productions and will be included in the "The Best Of" section of ARMONIA, thus becoming part of the international circuit of "International Restaurants".
Armonia in the Kitchen
At the same time as the Concorso Oleario Internazionale Armonia, the competition "Armonie in Cucina" takes place, which sees young chefs and enthusiasts compete, through a format also tested by the jurors of Master Chef Australia.
The main objective of the competition is to promote awareness of the importance of a correct use of extra virgin olive oil of excellence in the kitchen and at the table through the creation of dishes made with oils winners of the Harmony Competition, in search of the best food-oil combination.
After the success of the past editions at ALMA - The International School of Italian Cuisine and the edition ARMONIE in the KITCHEN held in Australia at the Sydney Seafood School which saw the participation as jurors of Gary Mehigan - Master Chef Australia, Giovanni Pilu - Pilu at Freshwater, Alessandro Pavoni - Ormeggio on the Spit, Ross Lusten - The Bridge Room, Simon Thomsen - Food jurnalist, Roberta Muir - Sydney Seafood School, the competition is divided into two sections:
The first open to young chefs of the Hotel Institutes participating in the project "Oleum Sapiens"
The second reserved for fans of amateur cooking schools.
Each participant will present his recipe with particular attention to the combination of food with the extra virgin olive oils of excellence winners of the International Olive Harmony Competition.

PREMI
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Harmony in the Kitchen - Oleum Sapiens Section
Prize awarded to the two young chefs, participants in the Oleum Sapiens project, who presented the best recipes using the winning oils of the International Harmony Oil Competition. -
Armonia in Cucina - Section Foodies amateur
Award recognized to the two amateur foodies who presented the best recipes using the oils winners of the International Oil Harmony Competition.
The winners of both sections will be entitled to a voucher for an Olive Oil Sommelier Course organized by the Olive Oil Academy.The course can also be held in the host structure.

OLEUM SAPIENS
A didactic-formative path/competition for the students of:
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Cooking schools
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Higher Institutes for Hotel Catering Services
to reward new recipes, dishes, ideas and new culinary creations based on extra virgin olive oil.
"CRAFT BEER & FOOD PAIRING" INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION
The ARMONIA International Competition "Craft Beer & Food Pairing" is open to all craft breweries based in Europe and consists of different stages of judgment.
An innovative evolution with the characteristics of internationality, focused on the quality of beers, but especially on the combinations and culinary preparations based on beer in the catering sector.

ARMONIA "Craft Beer & Food Pairing" is an event aimed at
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to reward excellence also and above all with a view to matching beer and food;
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promote a conscious use of the product in the kitchen and on the table, creating useful synergies for a proper enhancement of the product and for an increase in terms of dissemination and marketing in catering, especially abroad.

OIL-PIZZA PAIRING 2022
After the training event of Olive Oil Sommelier and its tasting of the best olive oils participating in the competition and selected by the popular jury in Brazil, The final selection of the oils of the ARMONIA Competition at the Hotel Ristorante Il Gabbiano, Via Nicola Morigi 10/A, Parma, ended on 26 October 2022.
The Armonia People’s Choice event involved journalists, gastronomy experts, chefs, restaurateurs, cooking enthusiasts, olive producers and consumers who, divided into ten work tables, evaluated the best oil-pizza combination.
The various juries were presented the pizza "Margherita Speciale" with natural leavening with fresh tomato and buffalo mozzarella, combined with olive oils winners of the sensory selection of the Harmony Competition: three delicate, three medium and three intense.
The evaluators gave opinions on the quality of the oil, from excellent (grade 5) to very bad (grade 1), on persistence to the taste/palate and overall harmony oil/pizza.
The evaluation sheet also asked how much you were willing to pay for an oil like the one tasted, in a fraction of half a liter, and what were the most suitable dishes to match each oil along with any suggestions or tips for use.
The general quality of the nine oils in the tasting was good, sometimes excellent in the matching with the light flavors of the pizza of "Il Gabbiano".