Bush Bunny to Ballymaloe: Who Moved My Cheese?

Wednesday is normally our theory day but with it being the first week, Thursday was scheduled for this instead so that we'd have 2 solid days in the kitchens first and so on our first theory day, we learned mostly about cheeses - Peter Ward of Country Choice came to speak to us, his company imports specialised food products and is based in Country Tipperary - he spoke so passionately about food and the huge value of quality ingredients and genuinely good produce, it was wonderful listening to him and he really inspired me to look for good food, especially local food, wherever it is that I'm living one day - he bought in a whole wheel of Parmesan cheese, real Parmagiano Reggiano from the Parma region of Italy, produced on a farm that he visits most years and made strictly according to the "rules" of parmesan production - couldn't believe how much he struggled with the wheel but everything became clear when he told us it weighed 90 pounds, about 40 kgs, that's only about 10 less than me (now, more like 20 by the time the course is finished I fear) and is made with 1,200 pints of milk, can you believe it and get this, the wheel costs €1,200 - I almost fell off my chair - it did taste incredible though, worth every penny I'd say - Darina told us that every scrap gets used, for obvious reason, and the rind apparently is fantastic in stock.

Once Peter had left, we moved onto some other cheeses, all made in Ireland where farmhouse cheeses made by artisan cheese makers is a truly thriving industry and I could see, or better taste, why - they were wicked. We tried Cashel Blue, Gubeen Farmhouse cheesse (very strong but good), Ardsallagh Goat's Cheese, Knockalara Sheep's Milk Cheese (similar to feta but nicer) and my personal favourite, Milleens - with this, Darina quickly whipped up some homemade cheese biscuits and I'd honestly not want to buy another packet of standard crackers from the shop again having tasted them, wafer thin and just so much better than anything I've tasted before.

She also made some red currant jelly which was gorgeous, no fruit in the bottle since it was a jelly and not a jam (learning new things every day you see) and the mixture just looked gorgeous in the jar, perfectly clear and a beautiful colour and I could just imagine how good it would be with a thick cut slice of gammon.

Lunch was fab, served in the Cafe and since we'd not been cooking in the morning, made by the school - for the first time I tasted roasted loin of bacon, I've never even seen a whole loin of bacon before but I'm going to try and put aside my love for Babe (somehow) and work out exactly where that part is so that I can do this again myself. Absolute highlight of lunch was the praline ice cream and when the teachers were bombarded with the same question, repeated breathessly by all of us, "Do we learn how to make this" the answer thankfully was yes, the relief was palpable and that's going to be a red letter day of note - you can keep your Haagen Daaz Pralines & Cream, this was heaven in a bowl and the recipe is going to be flagged, highlighted, carefully filed and treasured as soon as I it, YAY!

After lunch it was onto more practical issues including fire safety, which I'm going to do my best to avoid - if it catches on fire, there's a good chance I'll have messed it up properly - and health and hygiene standards and requirements, not as fun as watching demo but absolutely critical if you're going into the food business.

And that was it - our first day of theory, a whole lot more info stashed into our files and the corners of my brain that still have available space after the onslaught on info in our first few days.

Let me tell you one thing - "bagging" a good spot in the Demo Kitchen, which is where we also have our theory days is fast becoming as important to me as my baggy, elasticated chef pants (I love them, I fully appreciate their ugliness now, so much more practical when you don't want to think/feel the results of all the tasting) - there are a few chairs (and by that I mean only about 10) that beat the others hands down in terms of comfort and being near the front is mission critical too - surely if you've a frontline view there should hopefully/theoretically be a smaller chance of wreaking havoc in the kitchen the next day? So the race after lunch to grab one of those spots is becoming more and more competitive by the day, we'll be needing starter blocks and trainers soon!

Back to the kitchen tomorrow morning to make the dishes we watched on Wednesday afternoon's demo so I'll be digging those recipes out tonight for a thorough recap - can't wait to try everything though and no tarts for me tomorrow, woo hoo, my partner has that lovely task instead and I'll just get to eat them instead, my preferred option for sure.