Food in Provence (and elsewhere)

Last night’s pub outing doesn’t stop me getting up for an early morning walk around the farm where we see fruit just setting on the various different bushes and potatoes being harvested in the greenhouse—we’ll have these for lunch later! Visiting the greenhouse also gives an opportunity to check up on our corn plants. Unfortunately, the second one I planted is listing somewhat; maybe I’ll have to put in a stake when it has grown a bit. The one behind, though, looks to be doing fine.

Then to the lecture session where I’m very pleased to see that they teach people to make tea the exact same way I make it. If making tea with teabags is being dissed (and it is), I don’t know what Rory would make of the typical french offering of off-the-boil water and a teabag. Actually, I probably do as he moves on to tisanes and suggests these should be offered made with fresh herbs when possible or dried ones in the winter. This might sound over the top but he is emphasising the benefits this brings to the customer experience. Not so relevant for me, but perhaps for some of my fellow students if they ever set up their own business.

And there are shades of the Gastronomicom discussions of margin and profitability; Rory demonstrates a quick muesli recipe for which he estimates the production cost at 10% that of granola yet for which customers would be willing to pay just as much.

Rory also starts what will doubtless be a regular session on Irish farmhouse cheeses, introducing Milleens (Ireland’s longest established farmhouse cheese), Cashel and Crozier Blue, Gubbeen and Ardsallagh goat’s milk cheeses—and we taste all of these during a break. This being a school for apprentice restaurateurs, Rory also covers cheese service. Just as with the tea, I’m happy to hear him mention the importance of the correct temperature—I really hate being served fridge-cold cheese!

After the coffee break we have a lecture on hygiene and required practice in kitchens. I must admit I’d found the strictures around jewellery and nail polish more lax than in Gastronomicom where these were forbidden right from the start—and any fixed ear or nose studs had to be covered with tape. As the hobs here are all gas rather than induction, there was a rather terrifying scenario of getting a bracelet stuck on the pan support and being unable to turn off the ring. I really hope no-one here has a fixed bracelet!

Then, even though we’re not cooking, there’s a copious lunch. Potato soup with pesto, a whole slew of main course options (including the newly-harvested potatoes; I’m berated for only having one!), then berry compote, rhubarb & strawberries, chocolate & hazelnut tart, vanilla ice cream and more for dessert. Yet again I haven’t felt the need to eat anything this evening.

After lunch there’s another safety related talk on fire prevention and an explanation of the different types of fire extinguisher and how to use them—although the presenter was rather more in favour of people simply retreating as fast as possible!

Much more fun was the first of our introduction to wine sessions. After a taste of a cider made from apples grown in the orchard attached to the Ballymaloe House Hotel, we had an entertaining general overview by Colm McCan, the former sommelier at the hotel, followed by a tasting of two pétillant naturel wines (a white and a rosé) and then a sweet Malbec.