Look at the valve cover area again. All the way around. Just because they were recently changed doesn't mean it was done right and if they didn't carefully scrape ALL of the old gasket material off the mating surfaces, it'll cause a leak under load.

 

Devil,
Just looked under the hood. The valve cover gasket looks perfect. There is still some oil (sludge if you will) residue stuff on a heat shield below, so mayyyyyybe that's what I'm smelling??? I'm doubtful on that, however there is also more oil residue still around the back near the cam tensioner seal. It looks like it might have been recent, but I wasn't sure. I got most of it off and will check back there soon to see if there's a leak.
Still puzzled by this...

 

I think you should clean all of the residue off the heat shield and stuff. If it heats up it can still smell. Then see if it still smells and if those areas get more residue youl have a better idea of where its coming from.

 

Ok - here's a theory.
At a closer look, (since this car has driven 15k+ miles with this problem) there is quite a bit of oil that has come down from the valve cover gasket. That being said it is possible that it continues to burn that off the excess oil still no my motor. And after checking my oil level again, it appears that my engine may not be burning oil anymore. Is this possible? Or just wishful thinking?
Since it's not getting better or worse I feel like it is something else.
Also - the valve cover gasket along with the rest of the service was done by a reputable European Specialist, so I'm doubtful about a bad install.

 

Is the heat shield just above the turbo hard to take off? I'm looking into it as we speak.

 

I don't know much about the 1.8 but could it have to do with crankcase ventilation? Under boost you would get more blow-by in the cylinders.

 

No idea....
How could I check this?
All hoses seem to be in good shape. Don't see any oil anywhere near them...