Ballymaloe Cookery School

Shanagarry IE, Spring 2018

Our interest had been triggered several years ago at a family dinner party hosted by my cousin Allison who had just returned from an extended vacation in Ireland. She is a wonderful cook and can be counted on to turn out some of the most delightful meals I can recall. Thus, when she raves about something to do with food, Fran and I listen closely.  We are “foodies” in every sense and love nothing better than a memorable meal.

Her visit to Ireland had included a visit to Ballymaloe House and Ballymaloe Cookery School in Shanagarry (in southern Ireland near Cork) and she regaled about her experience in the extraordinary hospitality and deliciously fresh foods she found at Ballymaloe.

In the fall of 2017, Fran an I had an opportunity to join some friends on a Queen Mary 2 Transatlantic crossing and upon arrival in Southampton, as our friends prepared to return to New York, we grabbed an Aer Lingus shuttle to the southern Ireland city of Cork and found our way to Ballymaloe House in Shanagarry for a short, two-day visit.  Our intent was two-fold.  First, we wanted to be certain our cousin Allie had not been led astray by excess Jameson’s (distilled a few miles from Shanagarry in Midleton) and that Ballymaloe was everything she claimed, and second, we were eager to test the international service offered by Norwegian Air in and out of our home airport of Providence (PVD) to multiple destinations in Ireland for extremely low rates.

While Cousin Allie had extolled the virtues of the Cookery School, she heaped high praise on the hospitality and service she had experienced at Ballymaloe House, a few kilometers up the road from the Cookery School. Our Fall schedule did not match the school’s offerings so we opted to concentrate on the hotel aspects of the property.  Being suitably impressed, we planned ahead to coordinate a visit in the Spring that would allow some options at the Cookery School.

The Ballymaloe Cookery School was established in 1983 and has become a leader in international cuisine through the preparation of cooks and chefs throughout the world with a focus on organic offerings and farm-to-table food.  Founders Darina Allen and her brother Rory O’Connell combined forces and developed a brand that is widely known for excellence in food circles.  All are widely recognized for their television appearances in the US and EU as well as numerous cookbooks with all sorts of yummy meals.

The Cookery School offers a year-round collection of dozens of courses ranging from the gold-standard of professional cookery, a 12-week course, to half day demonstrations (which are typically part of the 12 week-course).   The Cookery School is located in one corner of the 300 acre Ballymaloe House farm and maintains its own 100 acre organic garden for use by students and faculty.  It’s an extremely functional layout of buildings and gardens around a central demonstration hall (classroom), with a second demonstration hall that doubles as a school cafeteria. Another wing includes prep areas for students to prepare their various assignments. Both class rooms include large, workspace mirrors (over the prep counters and cooking components), and multiple wide-screen TVs for students and guests to view prep work and/or instructional videos.

The entrance to the school is via the Cookery School Shop which offers a collection of kitchen tools, uniforms, cookbooks, organic foods and related kitchen materials for the serious cook or chef.  It’s hardly a chrome and gaudy façade, but rather an unassuming,  down-home, county farm exterior that’s probably designed to be unpretentious for the serious work to be accomplished inside.

Our course was a half-day, demonstration class on brunches and included a delicious lunch prepared by students and served as a buffet to students  and guests by student cooks and staff members (including founder Rory O’Connell).  I am a brunch aficionado at home, so this was a perfect match for me and resulted in including our eldest son Will and his lady-friend Marj in my planning.

Buffet Lunch at Cookery School

 

Rory O’Connell serving Will and Fran.

 

  A delicious, home-cooked  lunch at school.

We had flown from Providence directly to Cork via Norwegian Air and spent two days relaxing at nearby Ballymaloe House prior to our Monday afternoon demonstration class.
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Entrance to one of the working gardens.

We had arrived a bit early to scope things out and despite the light drizzle, we managed to wander through the adjacent gardens and could watch the students working inside at their prep tables on assigned menus and related exercises for that evening or the following day.

Classroom wing next to garden.

The afternoon session in the primary demonstration classroom convened as soon as lunch was completed and consisted of a student rollcall (just like I remembered from my school days) and assignments for evening cheese-making activities.   For the next roughly four hours, we were given a fire-hose treatment of brunch recipes and meal preparations by Rory O’Connell who interspersed his preparation of cooking techniques with sage advice on safety, sanitation, food presentation and general restaurant marketing.  Rory and his staff of professional sous chefs dashed through roughly 36 brunch dishes and thankfully we had all received printed recipe hand-outs with encouragement to make copious notes in the margins.  I kept in mind that this afternoon was only one small snippet of the curriculum the 12-week students were working through. Thick and overflowing binders containing recipes and prep guides made the 12-week students stand out from the demonstration guests.

A highlight was at the end of the session when students and guests were invited to the front counter to sample the various dishes that had been prepared during the afternoon session. As each dish had been completed, staff runners had placed the various dishes in holding units (heated and/or chilled) to keep them fresh until eaten.Samples of the brunches.

My biggest take-away was that simple, organically sensitive meals, cooked simply and presented well were often superior to super-fancy or exotic.

Our group of guests enrolled in the brunch demonstration class were an international collection of foodies from places like Australia, Europe, US, Canada, Ireland, UK and Scandinavia.  It turned out the 12-week student body was from an equal blend of international destinations, all of whom looked forward to a professional career in hospitality.  One student was a noted French winery owner who was eager to open a restaurant at his vineyard. We had watched him conduct a private wine tasting of his wares for the management and sommelier at Ballymaloe House Restaurant the evening before our class and noted his wines were at the high end of the wine list. (We probably should have inquired about free samples…not).

We thought about dining off site for dinner that night, but decided to stay at Ballymaloe House to fully appreciate the efforts the hotel staff would put into their evening meal. Every meal is prepared from a daily menu based on the local availability of the foods. Everything is a farm-to-table delight, just as Myrtle Allen had envisioned when she began serving meals in the late 1960’s. Her daughter-in-law Darnia Allen picked up the ball and began teaching those cooking skills and formed the Cookery School at her home a few kilometers away.  In the interim decades, both Ballymaloe House and Ballymaloe Cookery School have become leaders in their fields with national and international recognition in hotel and restaurant hospitality.

As an after-action report, I must share an interesting observation with respect the use of organic, locally growth produce and foods.  I have often thought of the growth of “organic” foods sold at local markets was mostly marketing hype.  On this visit, our family group included two members who have suffered for years with various food sensitivities. One had been diagnosed with a gluten intolerance and had faithfully avoided products containing gluten to avoid the distress that would usually soon follow. The second had been diagnosed with a lactose intolerance and consistently avoided milk-based foods to avoid similar discomforts.

With one or two exceptions, all our meals were taken at Ballymaloe House or Cookery School, where both family members sampled a range of foods that normally would have triggered considerable intestinal discomfort.  No reaction!  To the point that the lactose intolerant member was enjoying glasses of raw milk (fresh from the barn), freshly prepared, cream-based sauces and ice cream without a hint of complaint.  Same with the gluten intolerant member eating a variety of homemade breads and rolls without the various preservatives found in most domestic flours. How delightful.

We will clearly be watching for other opportunities to re-visit the Cookery School in the future.

Interested?  Check it out:  http://www.cookingisfun.ie/