First week at Ballymaloe
Above: My kitchen for the week
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Good afternoon from Ballymaloe!
I’m writing from my room in the Pink Cottage, which I share with Angelica, an Irish girl from nearby Cork City. There’s a cluster of cottages that surround a courtyard right next to the cookery school, and most of us 12-weekers live in them. We’re divided by age for housing, so Angelica and I share the Pink Cottage with 5 other young women: Eliza, Scarlett, Georgia, Izzy, and Holly. They’re all between ages 21 and 24 and come from either Ireland or the U.K, which means I’m surrounded by the most charming accents and sayings all the time. My American accent sounds more and more hideous to me every day! There are fifty-six students in total, ranging from ages 18 to 60-something. It’s mostly women, but there are a handful of men, too. I feel like I won the lottery with my Pink Cottage crew. They’re all so lovely and smart, and I can already tell it’ll be hard to separate at the end of twelve weeks. We’ve done everything together this past week, and it’s been pure fun.
Above: The cozy room I share with Angelica
On Monday, we went on a tour of Ballymaloe’s grounds—100 beautiful acres of farmland and gardens—led by Darina Allen, the school’s co-founder and a renowned chef and food writer. Almost everything they grow at Ballymaloe is edible; throughout the tour, Darina kept pointing out plants and describing what she might cook with them. Fig leaves for raspberry and fig leaf granita, sweet geranium for blackberry-apple compote, marjoram for a rack of lamb. In the herb garden, I rubbed lemon balm between my fingertips at Darina’s suggestion, and the citrusy scent lingered on my hands for the rest of the walk. After the tour, we had our first real Ballymaloe lunch (lunch is big here) and it didn’t disappoint. The food was simple and flawless, thoughtfully presented and full of homegrown ingredients. My favorite bits were the Irish soda bread, spread thickly with homemade butter, and the tomato basil soup, made with sweet late season tomatoes and cream from the cows roaming outside. The salad served at every lunch is unlike any I’ve ever had; each green, herb, and flower has its own distinct flavor and tastes impossibly fresh.
Above: My housemate Eliza picking wild blackberries with Darina
Above: First day of school photo with the whole Pink Cottage (from left to right: Izzy, Georgia, yours truly, Angelica, Scarlett, Eliza, and Holly)
Tuesday was our first day in the kitchen and our first day wearing chef’s whites, so of course we took pictures before heading out. I was the first student to enter Kitchen 1, and as I was showing my teacher Mamie my knife set, I pricked myself with the tip of my filleting knife. We hadn’t even started cooking yet! It was so ridiculous that I just started laughing. Luckily, Mamie was sweet about the whole situation and helped me wrap up my finger. By the end of the morning, almost all of us had blue bandages on our fingers. In our afternoon demonstration, Darina asked everyone with battle wounds to raise their hands — and a sea of blue bandages appeared in the air. There’s quite a range of skill levels in the kitchen, and I’d say I land somewhere in the middle. I have lots of people to learn from, but I also don’t feel like I’m terribly behind.
Above: My kitchen outfit, complete with flour smudges on my apron
The next two days were much the same. Our normal schedule involves cooking from 8 or 9am to 1pm, eating what we made for lunch, then going to an afternoon demonstration from 2-5:30pm where we learn how to cook what we’ll make the following day. Other than that, we all have rotating chores, and our teachers offer extra activities like foraging walks and organic gardening classes. Since my housemates and I are all obsessed with food, I expected that we’d make elaborate meals at home, but our lunches at school are so bountiful and nourishing that we’re still pretty full when dinner time rolls around. We’re also exhausted by the end of the day since we’re very much still adjusting to the intensity of kitchen mornings. A couple nights this week, my housemates and I just stood around the kitchen counter and ate buttered toast for dinner. :)
One highlight of the week was a Pink Cottage evening swim in the sea. The beach is right there—just a five minute drive from school. The water was cold, but not nearly as brutal as I thought it would be. We stayed in the water for fifteen minutes or so and came out refreshed after a long day of work. I want to take advantage of the nice weather we’re having and swim a few more times before it gets rainy and dark. We’re spoiled with heavenly food every day, but nothing tastes better to me than the AIR. My housemates are definitely sick of me gushing about the air quality, but I can’t help it! It’s clean and light and d e l i c i o u s. It reminds me of when I’d make it to Vermont for the first time after a long stretch at school in New York City. I’d open the car door when we got to the house and inhale deeply. That sensation is better than anything you could eat, I’m convinced.
Above: Post-swimming in the sea with Scarlett, Eliza, Georgia, and Angelica
Another highlight of the week was our first wine class, taught by Irish sommelier Colm McCan. His passion for wine is infectious, and I can’t wait to keep learning from him. We tasted four wines—two white and two red—and began the process of making our own wine, which won’t be ready until next summer. An excuse to come back!
On Friday night, I went to a pub in Ballycotton with a big group of Ballymaloe students to celebrate the birthday of Fred, one of our classmates. There’s a sweet old Irishman who works as the Ballymaloe taxi driver, and he drove to the pub and back four times to bring all of us over, and then again at the end of the night to bring us home. It was a fun, silly night, and we all talked about how we feel like we’ve been together for much longer than a single week. It’s a wonderful group of people: likeminded, kind, humble, hardworking. At the pub I had my first Guinness, which my new Irish friend David attempted to convince me was “incredibly nutritious” and “full of iron.” Sure, David.
I spent the rest of the weekend relaxing and recharging for the week to come.
Hope you’re all well!
Phoebs