Ballymaloe Cookery School
Unlike any other cookery school in the world, Ballymaloe Cookery School is located in the middle of a 100-acre, organic farm (10 acres of which are organic market gardens, orchards and greenhouses). The connection between farm and kitchen is obvious: for example, they grow over 40 different types of tomato alone (that’s the herb garden in the photo, at left).
The school buildings, including the kitchens, dining room, lecture rooms, library and self-catering accommodation, all are repurposed farm buildings. (It’s a plus, of course, that the cookery school is an offshoot of — and not far from — Ballymaloe Restaurant & Country House, Shanagarry, County Cork, Ireland.)
There are more than 30 courses to choose from, Road Trips Foodies. You can spend as little time as half a day or luxuriate in 12 weeks of instruction. Why consider the longest option? Maybe you want to fill your gap year between school and college or you’ve just retired. Maybe you’re just passionately interested in food! The 12-week certificate course is a comprehensive and intensive cookery course. The vegetables, fruit and herbs used in the classes come from Ballymaloe’s gardens and greenhouses. They raise their own cattle, pigs and chickens, and what they don’t grow is sourced locally. An example? Almost all of the fish comes directly from nearby Ballycotton Harbour.
If you don’t have that much time, there are lots of shorter options. “How to make butter, yogurt and several cheeses” is a half-day course. Those requiring a full day include “How to build a smoker and smoke your own food” and “Foraging”. Check out the whole list online.
Ballymaloe is owned and operated by Darina Allen (pictured, at right), said to be Ireland’s best-known chef. A graduate in hotel management of the Dublin Institute of Technology, she’s also a teacher, food writer, newspaper columnist, cookbook author and television presenter. Darina is a member of Taste Council of Irish Food Board, Chair of Artisan Food Forum of Food Safety Authority of Ireland, Food Safety Consultative Council of Ireland, Trustee of Irish Organic Centre and Patron of Irish Seedsavers.
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