There was a great interest in the olive oil home-cooked meals competition held at the harvest festival in Ayvalık.

This year, the 19th Ayvalık International Olive Harvest Festival, held in the Ayvalık district of Balıkesir, saw significant interest from housewives in the olive oil dish cooking competition.

In Ayvalık, the 19th Ayvalık International Olive Harvest Festival program, organized by Balıkesir Metropolitan Municipality, Ayvalık Municipality, Ayvalık Chamber of Commerce, Ayvalık Agricultural Chamber, Ayvalık Tradesmen and Craftsmen Chamber, and ATO Sensory Analysis Laboratory, included a competition for olive oil home-cooked meals.

The competition, which took place in Cumhuriyet Square in the center of the district, featured a jury consisting of Culinary Culture Writer Arzu Acurol, Columnist Communication Consultant Caner Ural, Food Blogger Gülten Kurtoğlu Özdemir, Gastronomy Writer and Documentarian Rıza Sönmez, and Ayvalık Chef and Businessman Sait Ergün. The excitement of the participating housewives was remarkable.

In the competition with 8 finalists, Hicran Atıcı won first place with her orange-flavored olive oil celery dish. The second place went to Çetin İçten, a well-known figure in the district, with his clay pot Arabic-style purslane dish, while the third place was awarded to Aysun Kubaş, who is physically disabled, for her olive oil Afyon Bükmesi.

Ayvalık Tradesmen and Craftsmen Chamber President Melih Çakırca expressed his satisfaction with the intense interest shown by housewives in the olive oil dish competition organized in collaboration with the Ayvalık Chamber of Commerce while speaking to journalists regarding the event.

Çakırca stated that they included local housewives in the competition for regional olive oil dishes instead of professional gourmets and hotel chefs, saying, “Hopefully, at the end of this competition, we will have highlighted dishes that can take their place in the gastronomic world of Ayvalık.” He emphasized that their goal was to bring the olive oil dishes of the people of Ayvalık into the gourmet world and thus tourism. “In this way, we aim to increase the diversity of olive oil dishes in Ayvalık and Turkish Cuisine,” he added.

Ayvalık Mayor Mesut Ergin, who congratulated the participants, stated that the flavors made by the skilled hands of Ayvalık housewives were evaluated by a professional jury and thanked all competitors in the contest.

Stressing that their goal is to reveal Ayvalık’s different values, especially olive oil, to increase tourism diversity, Mayor Ergin said, “We are also striving to positively elevate the diversity of Ayvalık Cuisine in the field of gastronomy. Ayvalık is a city of migration. All cultures that came with this migration should be reflected throughout Turkey. Hopefully, we will continue our efforts with more complex events in the coming years.”