Ballymaloe

Below is the index for all of my posts while I did the 12-week certificate course in Ballymaloe back in 2014, feel free to click through to each day. In November 2020 I transferred my entire website from wordpress.com to WordPress.org, unfortunately, this resulted in the loss of some of my content. Day 0: Leave your …

After spending 83 days at Ballymaloe Cookery School, I’ve taken in a phenomenal amount of information and have created things that I never imagined I could do. On reflection, there are definitely things that I think students should know before heading on this intensive journey, so I’ve put together a list of things I think …

Well, it’s over, that’s it, c’est fini. 83 posts altogether including day zero – it’s been a roller coaster of a ride. It’s hard to describe what how I’m feeling about the written exams right now, but the definite overall feeling that’s running through my veins is exhaustion. I barely slept last night and headed …

Time flies when you get towards the end of an adventure. Today I had a glorious lie-in, where my dreams weren’t filled with any sort of worry and my mind was at ease. Despite having a long day of exams ahead of me on Friday, I was mostly calm throughout the morning. Getting some quick …

To say I’m exhausted is an understatement – I feel like the blood has been drained from my body and I’m left with a hollow shell of a person. Today we had our main practical exam, and waking up after a surprisingly good sleep, I was anxious to actually just get into the kitchen and …

Another uneasy night in bed, I woke up barely before demo and hopped over to the cookery school as quickly as I could. On the menu for lunch today was venison, oysters and quail, and it was great to have a final lecture with Rory. Rolling out meat for our beef Carpaccio, Rory told us …

The alarm went off at 7.30am, but I didn’t haul myself out of bed until 8am… After a turbulent night’s sleep, I eventually managed to drag myself out into humanity with my chef whites on and knife bag under my arm. Though shattered, it was actually a lovely morning in the kitchen, with an air …

With only five hours sleep last night, I woke up with a cranky feeling. Wandering around at 8am to unlock our bedroom door I woozily staggered back to bed for an extra hour. Thankfully today was all about Mammy Kavanagh’s visit and with an hour of study under my belt, I was glad to get …

Carrageen moss as a drink would definitely not be one of my beverages of choice. Unable to sleep until 3am and then rising at 8am, my body was floating in a wave of drained energy and exhaustion. Forcing myself up, the house was quiet and I patiently waited for the kettle to boil and give …

The last thing you want to happen in cookery school is to be sick on one of the final cooking days… Over the past few days, I’ve felt another wave of sickness hit me. I don’t know whether it’s something I ate, the cold weather or just a thing that’s going around but anyway, to …