Ballymaloe Diary, Week 6

Well, it's been a while but I'm back again. I've been up to loads since I've last written & now I have exam jitters as we've our first exam tomorrow. It's a herb / salad recognition followed by a technique exam which could mean we may have to fillet a fish, segment fruit or even assemble a Magimix. We'll also have to pour a glass of wine (the Ballymaloe way) and make a paper piping bag. I must say that I'm nervous as it's been so long since I've had to do an exam but I'm sure everything will be fine - they're not trying to catch us out, just figure out if we've picked up anything since we started. On the plus side, one of the girls is throwing a barbeque tomorrow night so we can forget our woes over lots of good food & drink.

The demos have been pretty great lately, tapas yesterday, gorgeous fish curries last week, roast duck on Monday and, a goodie, burgers & chips today. I'm learning so much it's scary; I'm figuring out where I've been going wrong in so many dishes and am understanding flavours a lot better. I'm also sorting out things like presentation, timings and I no longer need to disect a piece of meat or fish to check that it's cooked.

I also spent last Saturday working in the Crawford Cafe in Cork's Crawford Gallery. It was great; I got to meet a good bunch of people and will definitely go back and do another shift before the course finishes up. That's the great thing about being here, we've the opportunity to work in professional kitchens with some amazing chefs - it's so hard to work out what I'm going to do next!

On an entirely different note, a gang of us spent time playing bongo drums at lunchtime today as stress relief - can you believe it? The tutor is coming back on wednesday night to give 35 of us a lesson.... Surreal!!!

Comments

[Deborah]

Wow sounds like fun Sarah. Best of luck tomorrow - I'm sure you'll be fine! :)

Loving the drums... used to have one during me erm, hippie days! :)

[Maz]

Hi Sarah,

best of luck in the exam, I'm sure you'll ace it. I'm planning to go drumming with Lette next week so when you come back to LK you'll have to join us! Glad you're still enjoying it and I can't wait to pick your brains about stuff when you come home.

Maz

[jen]

Good luck with the exams.

Sounds like you're learning so much fab stuff :-)

And the drumming! Great fun and a good way to destress, I bet.

[bannerboy]

Hi Sarah,
I have just read through the Ballymaloe Diary bits of your blog and I must say that it is really excellent. I wandered into your blog from Val's Kitchen and have really enjoyed what I read so far. As somebody who is struugling with the whole career direction thing at the moment I am blown away by your courage in making the jump from wage slavery into the unknown to follow something that you actaully care about. Best of luck with it but if a positive mental attitude is a key ingredient to success you are there already.

[Sarah]

Hi Bannerboy,
Thanks for that.... I need lots of words of encouragement at the mo... Well, not really, life's good at the mo!!!