Learning to cook in Ireland
There are few things more enjoyable than whiling
away an afternoon up to your elbows in flour, baking
a loaf of soda bread, or learning to combine kale,
scal ions, potatoes and butter to make the perfect dish
of colcannon. Plentiful in Ireland, cookery schools allow
visitors to combine a vacation with a short cooking
course. Serious foodies could take a three-month
certificate course designed to give students the skills to
cook professionally.
Complementing this expert tuition are the idyllic
locations of some of these schools. Belle Isle School
of Cookery near Enniskil en is deep in the heart of the
lush Fermanagh lakelands, while Ballynocken House
and Cookery School is nestled in the hills of County
Wicklow, the Garden of Ireland.
If hands-on seems like too much hard work, why not
try a thoroughly satisfying afternoon demonstration by
celebrity chef Darina Al en at the Bal ymaloe Cookery
School in Shanagarry, East Cork? Here – and, indeed,
in most Irish cookery schools – you can investigate the
kitchen garden where much of the produce used is
grown using traditional or organic farming methods.
For a ful listing of cooking schools in Ireland, visit
www.discoverireland.com
14
Liz Moore, Belle Isle School of Cookery, County Fermanagh
