60 years on... when the Ballymaloe culinary story began

WHEN I first met Darina Allen back in 1983, when Ballymaloe Cookery School was established; she was a farmer’s wife with four young children.

Four decades later, Darina and her brother, Rory O’Connell, are recognised all over the world as the Irish culinary chefs that taught so many to cook.

And it all had its roots in a decision taken in 1964, when Myrtle Allen, encouraged by husband Ivan, opened Ballymaloe as a restaurant. The couple had bought the place in 1948 and raised their family there. In 1964, she made a momentous decision.

“On a winter’s day, I sat by the fire alone and wondered what I would do in this big house when all the children were grown up - then I thought about a restaurant.”

Myrtle’s aim was to emulate the best Irish country house cookery, and she and Ivan placed an advert in the Cork Examiner: ‘Dine in a Historic Country House. Open Tuesday to Saturday. Booking essential. Phone Cloyne 16.’

The rest is history. Their son, Tim Allen, married Darina, and she and her brother Rory have continued the Ballymaloe culinary tradition that marks 60 years this year.

However, it hasn’t always been plain sailing. The 1980s was a tough decade in Ireland, plagued by a struggling economy, recession, and unemployment.

“I often say the cookery school was born out of necessity and desperation,” says Darina, 74, who married Tim Allen in 1970.

“In the late ’70s and early ’80s, there was a perfect storm as far as we were concerned. There was 25% inflation and interest rates were huge. After the oil crisis, oil went up by something like 400%.

“We had joined the EU and there was a tidal wave of regulations.”

Like many of us, Darina had mortgage payments to meet. She had to make a bob.

“I’d tried everything,” she recalls. “I made jam to sell to shops. I opened a little farm shop thinking I’d make a few bob from that.”

The surrounding farm of Darina’s home, Kinoith, was a thriving horticultural enterprise, including five acres of greenhouses, a mushroom farm, and 65 acres of orchards.

“We used to sell our produce to wholesalers for export,” says Darina. “Supermarkets seemed to be the way to the future, so we started supplying them. Instead of getting more, we were getting less and less. Things weren’t getting better.

“We were desperate. The writing was on the board. We had to make a living.”

The solution to keeping a roof over their heads? “It was under our feet,” says Darina.

Myrtle, the matriarch of Ballymaloe, came up with a solution for the next generation to make a living and make their mark.

“She had already been giving winter cookery classes to fill guest bedrooms during the quieter part of the season,” says Darina. “I helped her out from time to time.

She soaked up everything like a sponge.

“When Myrtle was invited to open a restaurant in Paris, she suggested I take over the classes.”

But Darina, a farmer’s wife, was known only to her family and friends.

“I said to Myrtle, nobody will come to me. It is your name that is bringing them in.”

But Darina was willing to give it a go.

“I thought nobody would come to me because my name was totally unknown,” says Darina. “But we really needed the money, so I plucked up the courage to put an advert in the Cork Examiner for a series of eight Saturday morning classes in one of the converted farm buildings.”

She was in business

“For me, the first class was scary,” says Darina. “People arrived in their little fur jackets and BMWs.”

Darina, a little more than daunted, took action. “We hid our rusty old Renault around the back and welcomed them with freshly ground coffee and home-made biscuits. I remember my mischievous children used to come along to the window and put out their tongues and make funny faces behind people’s backs, which I pretended not to see!”

Darina, who learned to cook and bake as a child in her mother’s kitchen in Laois, was a natural. “I thought, maybe I can do this.”

She really could open a residential cookery school in the lush surrounds of East Cork that people would flock to.

“There were nine students signed up for the first cookery course,” says Darina.

But it wasn’t long before Ballymaloe Cookery School was on the map.

“Ten years later, we were bursting at the seams,” says Darina, laughing.

In the first year, she ran just 15 courses. Today Ballymaloe Cookery School offers over 100 options. When I paid a recent visit to the school, there were 15 nationalities enrolled in the 12-week course.

Big sister Darina invited younger brother Rory to join her.

“My first job was on reception,” says Rory, who had begun his cheffing career at Arbutus Lodge.

“I studied law for one year and realised it wasn’t for me. Then I dabbled in fine art and auctioneering.”

He made a good career move.

“I went into the Ballymaloe kitchen, learning to make exotic things like Hollandaise sauce and Béarnaise sauce. I was lucky. I seemed to have a natural flair for cooking and organising.”

“And lists,” chips in Darina. “Our lives are made up of long lists!”

The are close.

“I adore Rory,” says Darina. “And he adores me. He is super. We have a mutual respect for each other.”

“It is a special sort of dynamic,” says Rory.

The pair cooked up the perfect recipe to do business.

“We wanted to equip people with the skills to earn a living from the cooking, to cook with confidence,” says Darina.

“It was also part of our DNA to get people to cook with the seasons, to cook what was in the garden.”

They learned from the best.

“It was exactly the Ballymaloe philosophy, what Myrtle was doing when I came to Ballymaloe and what our mother had done before that,” says Darina.

The students were intent on learning the Ballymaloe philosophy.

“It was all super-exciting,” says Darina. “The students were excited learning all about food. It’s a lovely experience as a teacher.”

The students experience many roles.

“The ones that want to learn how to milk cows start at 8am,” says Darina. “Duties are split by rotas and include picking salads and vegetables, making butter, preparing stock, weighing ingredients and general kitchen tasks that need to be done before the pressure of the morning starts.

“Students work in pairs, although everyone cooks their own dishes. Once they have completed their dishes, we have a tutor tasting where each teacher marks the recipe. Continual assessment gives us the chance to gauge progress. Halfway through the course there is a mid-term test. At the end, there is a full examination, which together with the assessment marks, goes towards the 12-week certificate course.”

Something special was brewing.

“We realised we had something special when we invited guest chefs to give classes. People like Claudia Roden, Marcella Hazan and Joan Grigson and Madhur Jaffrey” says Darina.

“Food writers turned up and we were on the cover of Gourmet magazine. Imagine, Gourmet writing about a cookery school on a farm in Ireland!”

Ballymaloe Cookery School, that evolved from a converted outhouse, and expanded into a sophisticated hub of worldwide acclaim, was firmly on the culinary map.

“I have my ace local builders to thank!” says Darina.

She looked after them well.

“I was up and down ladders with freshly baked scones, raspberry jam and cream!”

Graduates of Ballymaloe Cookery School include Lilly Higgins, Thomasina Miers, Catherine Fulvio, Clodagh McKenna, Cullen Allen, Rachel Allen and Arun Kapil.

What sustains Darina four decades after welcoming the Cork ladies in fur jackets driving BMWs?

“At this point in time I have no intention of retiring,” she says. “I plan to keep teaching as long as I have the energy and strength. I am eternally curious and love learning as much as my students.

“Food, wine and farming give me the opportunity to add to my knowledge and meet fascinating and inspirational people - both here at Ballymaloe and on my travels across the globe - who are every bit as passionate as I am about delicious, nourishing food, sustainable farming and looking after the soil that nourishes all.

“Ballymaloe cookery students now work all over the world cooking and teaching and are involved in food in a myriad of ways, from manning stalls at farmers’ markets to running farm shops and their own cookery schools, writing cookbooks and blogs to cooking on yachts, oil rigs, in the Outback or in pubs, cáfes and food trucks.”

Darina loves what she does. Myrtle, who died in 2018, would be proud.

“Like the best traditional farms, this is a family-run business,” says Darina. “Everyone who is old enough lends a hand.”

Darina is proud of her achievements.

“I love what I do and feel blessed to be teaching a subject that not only excites people but gives them the skills and the confidence that will enhance the quality of their day to day lives.”

Since opening in 1983, Darina and Rory have taught more than 4,950 students, spanning 62 different nationalities, many of them going on to excel in the world of food.

That decision by Myrtle Allen in 1964 has borne fruit over and over again.

Ballymaloe Cookery School, Organic Farm and Gardens. Shanagarry, Co. Cork. Phone: 021-4646785

http//wwwballymaloecookeryschol.ie