I have wanted for some time now to show you some videos from my time at Ballymaloe Cookery School. It’s just taken me a while to get around to it – life has been so busy lately. But I wanted to post them before it was too late – it’s frightening that I have been home for four months now.
I hope these videos will give an insight into everyday life on the Ballymaloe Certificate Course, and show you some of my experiences first hand.
First of all, this is a video I made with the help of teacher Annette, when we prepared and cooked scallops in Week 4.
The way the course is structured involves spending the mornings in the kitchen, and then everyone cleans down and enjoys the food we’ve cooked for lunch in the dining rooms. Much time is spent preparing the raw ingredients before cooking recipes to hone our skills. The meat is on the bone, chickens are whole and fish are freshly caught, with the shellfish often still alive. This video was taken from one of my favourite days – lobster day.
Every morning students are in the kitchen (with the exception of wednesdays which are mostly theory-based days), everyone gathers around for an introductory talk with the teachers in the kitchen to run through the recipes of the day before starting. This is a typical morning in Kitchen One.
And this is the same, but in Kitchen Two (there are three kitchens in total).
And finally, at the end of the course, students are taken to Ballymaloe House for Afternoon Tea with Mrs Allen, who shares the Ballymaloe story with us over tea and delicious cakes.
I hope you enjoy these videos. Please feel free to share this page with anyone who may be interested in learning more about the course. Thank you.