Day Five- There's A Fire!

So week one is down, sitting here with a glass of wine and some yummy chowder. Usually we have an all day theory day scheduled for Wednesday but because this is the first week, we had it today instead. The morning kicked off with Darina demonstrating a red currant jelly, followed by a cheese talk, and a wine talk.

Darina discussed one of Ireland's best known cheese makers- Veronica Steele, who formed Mileens Cheese in Beara Peninsula, West Cork (see a young Veronica above). Veronica started out in 1976 and has been credited as the pioneer behind the rise of modern Irish farmhouse cheese. Darina recalled how Myrtle Allen used to include a complimentary tasting of Irish farmhouse cheese with an evening meal in Ballymaloe House, to promote Irish artisan cheese producers. Customers would taste the cheese, then they would ask where they could buy the cheese and so the word would spread. To accompany the delicious cheeses, Mileens, Cashel Blue, Guabeen Cheese and then a fantastic winter cheese- Vacherin Mont-d’Or, Darina demonstrated how to make Ballymaloe Cheese Biscuits. Of course, no cheese and biscuits would be complete without some amazing wine, Darina then gave us an introduction to wine. Next week, the main sommelier from Ballymaloe House will be presenting a course on wines, we're all very much looking forward to it.

We then broke for lunch, my daily duty today was to clear the tables so I was back to my waiting days again- it was real fun. It's great fun when we are all responsible for serving and clearing the dining room, it adds to the experience.

We returned from lunch and were given a talk by the fantastic Mark Kingston of Golden Bean Roastery from the Ballymaloe Cafe. Mark will be changing the coffee beans every two weeks to educate us on the varieties of coffees. Mark began his brewing path in 2002 making coffee from Arabica beans from Indonesia, Ethiopia, and Colombia. If you want to catch a coffee from Mark, he has a stall at Midleton Farmer's Market and Mahon Point Farmers Market.

Following Marks' chat, we had a talk on fire prevention and haccp- I'll save you those ;)

Tomorrow- Saturday Pizza!

D x