Today has been a blast! The Ballymaloe staff served us both breakfast and lunch today, and boy what a treat that was! For breakfast, there was a wide assortment of options - traditional porridge (similar to oatmeal, but much better!!!), raspberry and apple muesli (which is cold porridge mixed with yogurt and fruit I think?), granola, house-made yogurt and butter, and various breads and jams. What a delicious way to start our first real morning here! Sadly it has been raining ALL day, literally without a single break at all, so we weren't able to get a tour of the grounds, but hopefully that will be tomorrow. Instead, we all sat in the demo room for awhile going around the room and giving individual introductions. Everyone here comes from so many different backgrounds! We have people of all ages and careers coming from New Zealand, Austria, France, Belgium, Japan, Canada, Scotland, England, the US, and Ireland (there may be other places, but those are all I can remember right now from the intros). There are people looking to use cooking as a career, others taking a sabbatical from work, and some just looking to gain life skills. I don't really know what category I fall into - do I want to be a chef? Tough question.... After all 60 or so of us had introduced ourselves, Darina Allen (the head chef and founder pretty much) gave us a nice introduction to what we are getting ourselves into. It may be a bit overwhelming this week with everything we are going to be doing, but I know it'll be great fun! There are so many extracurricular opportunities too that I am going to participate in - this Saturday morning I'm going to be able to work in the Ballymaloe House kitchen and get some restaurant experience, then we'll also be able to watch demos on cheese-making, organic gardening, smoking, and butchery. And ALSO I signed up to work at a Café in Cork city on October 31st too. I'm so excited for everything! I can see now why the course seems to fly by. By the time we had finished up talking, it was time for lunch, which was quite an extensive menu!
(Counterclockwise...)
Overall, a DELICIOUS meal!!! We finished it off with some dessert too, which was some sort of meringue cake and homemade ice cream :D. After lunch, we were able to watch Darina give us a cooking demonstration, which has gotten me really excited!!
Since it was raining, we all sat in our cottages. In mine, we watched a documentary called "Sugar Rush," by Jamie Oliver, which I would highly suggest you watch if you have some free time! I was also able to go on a run despite the rain :) The countryside is so beautiful here that I find myself running a lot longer than I'm expecting to just for the sake of seeing new sights in the area. I've noticed there are a lot of blackberries along the roads! Here are some of the pictures I took while I was running...
- Smoked mussels from a local artisan fish smoker and homemade mayo on brown bread
- Salmon smoked on the Ballymaloe farm with homemade dill mayo
- Smoked mackerel with horseradish cream
- Local shrimps (which were actually really tasty - brains and all!)
- Pickled cucumbers
- Chicken liver paté on toasted bread
- Rocket (or arugula), deviled egg, and tomato salad
- Aubergine (or eggplant) with salami and olive (with the pit IN, which apparently preserves a lot of the flavor!)
- I think there was a random stalk of chive in there as well for decoration.
Overall, a DELICIOUS meal!!! We finished it off with some dessert too, which was some sort of meringue cake and homemade ice cream :D. After lunch, we were able to watch Darina give us a cooking demonstration, which has gotten me really excited!!
Since it was raining, we all sat in our cottages. In mine, we watched a documentary called "Sugar Rush," by Jamie Oliver, which I would highly suggest you watch if you have some free time! I was also able to go on a run despite the rain :) The countryside is so beautiful here that I find myself running a lot longer than I'm expecting to just for the sake of seeing new sights in the area. I've noticed there are a lot of blackberries along the roads! Here are some of the pictures I took while I was running...
The rest of the evening was spent socializing and playing cards in my cottage. We've been having so much fun!! I'm really enjoying getting to know the students more. We all really love great food :). Tomorrow's the big day, where we get to wear our chef's whites and start cooking! Can't wait!
Until next time,
Livvy
Until next time,
Livvy