Ballymaloe

At last I am actually here at the cookery school! After a good sleep in at the hotel in Cork this morning, I had breakfast, closed up the dreaded suitcase and got in a cab to head for Ballymaloe. Arrived here just before noon, checked in, and was shown to my home for the next 12 weeks, The White Cottage. I unpacked my suitcases, made my bed and settled into The Hazelnut room. A very spacious room, with lots of storage, and best of all an ensuite! Ayane from Japan was the next to arrive, and we headed into Midelton (about 20 minutes away) to shop for some necessities. They showed a video about Myrtle Allen, who owns and runs Ballymaloe House down the road, which talked about her life and influence on food in Ireland. When the movie finished Ayane and I headed back to the cottage where we met Ros from Dublin, and shortly after that Hannah from London arrived.

At 6:00, the four of us headed over to the school for dinner…. Pizza from the wood-fire oven, a lovely simple green salad with foraged greens, and lettuce from the glass house, and homemade icecream for dessert with chocolate and raspberry sauce. All of which was very tasty – but would we expect anything less?! We met some of the Ballymaloe team at dinner, Darina Allen who owns the school and does a fair bit of teaching, Rory O’Connell who is Darina’s brother and a teacher here as well, Darina’s husband Tim, and their son Toby.

We are all back in the sitting room at the cottage now, reviewing the package we were given when we arrived… Quite the lot of paper, bits and pieces about the course in general, different duties that students have inside their cottages and at the school, and this weeks recipes. Just under 200 pages of recipes and notes for this weeks demos, starting with the basics which makes it seem a little bit less daunting.

Well it is now 10 to 10 and I better head to bed before day one… We start with a quick breakfast in the morning before we take a walk around the farms and garden with Darina and have a proper introduction to things here, then we have lunch and our first demo. Can’t wait!