It’s been an odd day! It was our last normal day here at Ballymaloe, we were in the kitchen this morning and then had a demo this afternoon. Mixed emotions from a lot of people around here this evening, it was a long day – didn’t get out of the school until after 7:30. As we were sitting in demo this afternoon, which was a bit random as it was student requests, people were sighing and complaining about how long the demo was taking… I thought to myself, in a week or two when most of us are back to work, we will be wishing we were back at Ballymaloe, listening to Darina, Rory, or Rachel in the demo room, even if the chairs are uncomfortable. At the beginning of the course, three hours was torture in those chairs, we could barely get through the all day demo days on Wednesday, and now I hardly notice that they are uncomfortable. I had a really great last morning in the kitchen, and officially have everything signed off on my technique sheet, which I am very pleased about. I worked really hard from the beginning to get things signed off, so it feels good to have it done. As we walked out of the school the bulletin boards – that usually have the grids for tomorrow’s cooking, the weekly list of who is in what kitchen / what section they are in, weekly notices etc. were empty. So odd, it’s really coming to an end.
JR the head pastry chef from Ballymaloe House came by tonight to chat to us about a recent trip he was on and his experiences with food along the way, and he also showed us a dessert that I can’t think of the name of right now, and it’s filed away… Anyway, it was delicious. He is very talented, and makes everything look far simpler than it really is, I’m sure.
Somehow I missed (along with many others), that we have to have an index at the beginning of every section in our binders. Thankfully I have kept on top of my filing from the beginning, so I don’t have piles of paper to put into page protectors and find a slot for in my binders, but… I haven’t done an index. I have over twenty-three sections in three binders, tonight I sorted through ten sections, and typed up indexes for them – the index is nine pages typed, and took me about three hours to do. I am actually glad I am doing it because I have found some very random recipes filed in the wrong sections, and it is forcing me to go through and tidy up the sections. The number of recipes that we have been shown over the last twelve weeks is incredible. Even though it’s way past by bedtime, I am glad I toughed it out tonight to get a good chunk of this done. I also have a fourth binder which has the notes from our wine lectures, cheese lectures, Wednesday lectures, notes that we were given at the beginning of the course (that is probably where it says we had to have an index!), and the weekly overviews, my orders of work etc. that binder is bursting, but it’s all filed properly as of tonight… Hoping it doesn’t explode as it makes it’s way back to Edmonton.
Although I am excited to get home to see everyone, (especially to see those two cute kids that I call my niece and nephew!), I really can’t believe that I’ve been here for nearly three months – I can’t believe it’s been that long, but at the same time thinking back to the day I arrived seems like a million years ago. For anyone that has done the course, I am sure they can relate, but it is so hard to explain. As Hannah said tonight, people dream of doing Ballymaloe and can never make it happen. I know it sounds mushy, but I am so fortunate that I was in a position to leave Edmonton for twelve weeks and go on the most incredible adventure. It is going to be so weird to leave this place that I’ve called home, it’s going to be hard to leave Ireland and all that is happening in the garden here to come home to snowy Edmonton, but I am looking so forward to spring at home.
Tomorrow morning is our last demo with Rory, and then we have the afternoon off. I will finish creating the indexes for my binders before I head off to Ballymaloe House for dinner with Jeni and Mary. The draw for our breads for our practical exam is tomorrow after the demo, so I will also be able to do my order of work for Wednesday morning’s cooking…
“I don’t flap about, I just quickly and confidently get it done.” – JR on icing the dessert that I can’t think of the name of…