Goodbye to Ireland

I am just waiting at Dublin Airport to catch my flight to Toronto and then on to Edmonton. This is my last blog for my trip and an opportunity to reflect on the experience.

I had a pretty enjoyable time at the Ballymaloe cooking school. It was a very unique experience and during the week I was kept quite busy. The afternoon lectures were a little long and towards the end of the course I could really only concentrate on the 4 recipes that I knew that my partner and I would be making the next day and not all 10 of the ones that were presented. If my partner and I were organized, I only had to concentrate on the 2 recipes that I was making. The practical sessions with the instructors were very good and I probably got the most out of these sessions. The instructors were all very patient and knowledgeable. We had from 8:30 to noon to get our recipes done but sometimes we went over like on the lasagna day when I went to one. Lectures/demos in the afternoon were 1:45 to 5 pm sometimes a little longer. The teaching was based on recipes so two people on the course could have a totally different repertoire of recipes that they had learned. It would have been nice if they concentrated more on fundamentals. I wasn't the only person who had difficulties concentrating in the afternoon. The Ballymaloe recipe book was based on recipes from the 50s and 60s. Something your mother would have made. I don't think that they had ever heard of the Mediterranean diet. Everything was pretty heavy on butter and cream. I can only imagine what my cholesterol level could now be. Lunch was our big meal of the day as we would eat the food we had prepared. We were left to our own devices for supper and breakfast and I would typically eat a very light fare. I am hoping that I didn't put on too much weight. My cooking skills have improved but not as much as my children had predicted they would. It was a summer cooking camp for adults. When I went to a children's camp and learned to canoe, I wasn't ready to do a major canoe trip or white water canoeing by myself. The course was expensive but having gone to the school and seen the amount of support staff required and recognizing that they only used organic food, I understand why the course was so expensive. The school was in the country and a little isolated for getting out on weekends but for the majority of weekends I managed to get away. Latching on to Doug was great as he had a car which allowed us to do some evening walks and swims away from Ballymaloe and Shannagary beach. Unfortunately he was away for 3 of the 4 weekends. People in general were pretty friendly and worked cooperatively. The instructors told us that all courses weren't as harmonious as ours. Jenner one of my classmates who I spent extra time with in the bread shed in the morning before going to the practical sessions asked me at the end of week 3 if I was ready to go home and I quickly answered that I wasn't. By the 5th week, I had had enough of cooking and like many of the classmates was happy for the great experience but was also happy that it was ending. Their signature course at Ballymaloe is 12 weeks long which the majority of the older students who were on my course and were not interested in a career in the food industry felt would have been too long. If anyone who reads this blog is interested in going to Ballymaloe for their cooking school , please feel free to reach out to me if you need me to answer any additional questions.Read more