A Pub Story

Week one

Tuesday:

This was our first official day cooking and it felt great to be back in a kitchen. My teacher is named Jo and she is from Australia—an absolute gem of a human. Small flex: I have decent knife skills which got a compliment by one of my new friends, Natalie, that went a little something like this:
Nat: Wow, you’re so fast.

Matt: I’ve done this before.

This was an incorrect response to a compliment. It is not how we make friends. While stirring the soup I was preparing, I did some brief soul searching and decided to confront my new friend. By saying “I'm sorry if I seemed like a mythic bitch back there when I said ‘I’ve done this before.’ It’s just that I am a mythic bitch and I had done this before.” Forgiveness blossomed. After we completed our cooks, we had our afternoon lecture or ‘demo.’

Going into this course, I prioritized not hiding any part of me including my queer identity. While I have very fortunately felt consistent love and support from everyone in my community back home, it was not lost on me that this is an international group of students at this school and not everyone might be as accepting. However, today in our demo, one of the teachers mentioned that he just got back from a vacation to Italy with his boyfriend. That one short anecdote, as frivolous as it was, put my anxious little mind at ease. (I also had the opportunity to tell him this. He is very kind and a very talented chef).

Wednesday:
Today was rad. I made a Quiche Lorraine* that my teacher, Jo, loved. Teacher told me that she would’ve given it an “exceeds expectations” if not for having to remake my dough, which was honestly so fair. My first attempt at the dough was very dry and would’ve crumbled under the pressure of a conventional oven. We tried to save her, but she was too far gone. So I re-weighed out my flour and butter and gave it another swing- my god, she turned out beautiful.

Later, I swam in the ocean in 58º weather which was very brave of me. The guy who runs the sauna by the beach says you have to get into the water for 10 min, and then sauna for 10 min three times to really get the benefits- so I did just this. We ended the night at the pub at a table where I was the lone American. I did a little ‘bit’ where I pretended to never have heard of Rugby- it smashed. 

Thursday:

I had scheduled myself to cook three recipes today because I was feeling ambitious. The usual amount is two but I’m here to challenge myself. Then my teacher said “I think you have time to make scones to go with Annette’s jam.” To which I replied, “you do?” For those keeping score, that brings our tally up to four. I ended up making the scones with the encouragement and time management of Jo, but forgot to add the sugar to the recipe. This honestly ended up being fine for what they were. I just coated them with demerara sugar** We live. We learn. 

After classes, I walked to the beach, got lost and accidentally rubbed my hands on some stinging nettle which was so lit. But again I was very brave. Finally, I ran into my pal, Ellie, while picking up some groceries and we met some other buds at the pub. Yes, this is two consecutive days at the pub. 

Friday:

We made wine and ate cheese today. We also had one of the most beautiful weather days yet. Sun low in the sky with crisp fall weather creeping on in. To celebrate our first week, a lot of us went down to where? You guessed it- the friggin’ pub. To better illustrate how rural it is here, ‘the pub’ is one of three walkable places. The others being a cafe and a gas station that has a small amount of grocery items. A place that would ordinarily feel isolating feels a lot more comfortable with likeminded people blowing up their lives, quitting their jobs and going to culinary school in rural Ireland. Main takeaway today was that I am here with so many lovely people who are pursuing this dream- it’s brilliant. 

Cheers to us- see you next week.

*an egg custard dish in a shortcrust pastry with, bacon, onion and usually some leafy green herb.

** a lighter brown coarser sugar often used for finishing something like a dessert. Similar to Turbinado sugar or “sugar in the raw”

BallymaBlog playlist here -songs are all over the place this week