For many chefs, the first step in their career doesn’t start in school or college. No, it often begins much earlier than that, holding their mother’s apron strings in the family kitchen. This was certainly the case for Rory O’Connell, whose mother Elizabeth ignited a passion for food at an early age.

“She was a marvellous woman” he says, recalling her fondly. “Not only could she cook, but she loved to cook. She believed, and quite rightly, in the importance of food, particularly in the younger years, in terms of setting your stomach up in good stead.

"And she was also an excellent homemaker – everything was always of such a high standard. In the evening, the table would be set, there would be flowers in a vase. She was elegant, very quiet, dignified.”

Elizabeth was also a woman of real resilience.

“Well, there was nine of us, and my father died when she was pregnant with my youngest sister. Not only did she have a family to raise, there was a complex set of family businesses that needed to be run.

"But if you look back at that time, it seemed like Ireland was full of widows who had this resigned determination of ‘well, this is our lot and we just have to get on with it’. And that isn’t to undermine the emotional toll of the situation; my parents were very happy together, so she was just bereft.”

Recognising the integral role that women play in farming, food and business is just one of the reasons why Rory immediately said yes to doing a cookery demo at this year’s Women & Agriculture conference.

That and the numbers just seemed to stack up.

Last year, the Irish Farmers Journal celebrated 75 years, while Ballymaloe Cookery School marked 40 years in business. This year Ballymaloe House is celebrating 60 years and in March, it was 100 years since the birth of the great matriarch of Irish food, Myrtle Allen.

The next step

While Elizabeth O’Connell was the woman who ignited Rory’s love of cooking, it was Myrtle Allen who helped hone it at Ballymaloe House.

“Oh, it was sometime in the 1970s when I left Cullohill in Co Laois and first went to Ballymaloe House. At that stage, my older sister Darina had become part of the Allen family and I had done a bit of summer work there. I had a few failed attempts at university and stuff like that, so at the end of the summer, when I still didn’t know what to do academically, I went to the kitchen and asked Mrs Allen could I stay until Christmas to learn a few dishes. I really wanted to perfect a beautiful Béarnaise sauce and a hollandaise. And that was that. I did go off and work in other kitchens over the years but that was when Ballymaloe first became home.”

Working under Mrs Allen was quite an experience.

“I learned so much about the importance of local produce and letting the ingredients shine. Some of the recipes were very simple, with just a few ingredients, but of course the shorter the ingredient list, the more nuances that come into play in cooking.

"Take a tomato sauce for example, it could just be tomatoes, salt and pepper and a pinch of sugar. So if those tomatoes aren’t absolutely spot on, the whole thing just falls flat on its face.

“This all tied into recipe development, which of course started for Mrs Allen in the Irish Farmers Journal before the doors of Ballymaloe House even opened. That column started a lifetime of recipe development and publishing for her, and I remember doing recipe testing to make sure everything was good enough to be published. That has absolutely coloured my approach to cooking ever since and sowed the seeds for developing recipes and writing my own books many years later.”

Speaking about Mrs Allen’s column in the Irish Farmers Journal, Rory says its strength was her connection to the reader.

“She wrote in a very uncomplicated manner, she was direct and succinct, in a way that made complete sense to people. But she also made the ordinary a little bit extraordinary.

"Think back to the 1960s, there was a lot of cooking going on in farmhouse kitchens across the country. There was very little eating out, so it was three meals a day, seven days a week and a fair bit of self-sufficiency on top of that. To a certain extent, cooking was relentless and dull, and, lets be honest, a bit bloody boring. But she brought excitement and really celebrated the quality of the ingredients – the lamb, the beef, the local vegetables.

“She made people look at their cooking with a different eye and gave them confidence in what they were doing. There was also the emotional involvement and how cooking marks the seasons, so I think it may have been a highlight in the reader’s week.”

Passion for cooking

Cooking and developing recipes at Ballymaloe House was for Rory the side dish to the main event – his great passion is teaching people cookery skills.

“Mrs Allen used to give cookery classes in the winter when the business was quiet, and then at some point Darina started helping her. And it was one of those things that Mrs Allen became too busy, and Darina and I wanted to do more in that area, and Ballymaloe Cookery School was one of those ideas that just evolved.”

It may have evolved, but a great deal of thought went into the standard of the school, the skills and the transfer of knowledge. Now celebrating over 40 years in business, its prestigious name has travelled far beyond the fields of Shanagarry. What’s been key to its success?

Darina and I, we’re both very passionate about food, where it comes from and the joy it brings to people’s lives

“Oh it’s a whole recipe,” says Rory, laughing. “I suppose quality and passion – and excellent ingredients, that has been there from the start. Darina and I, we’re both very passionate about food, where it comes from and the joy it brings to people’s lives.

"It’s wonderful to see the confidence that cooking can give people. Then there has been this insatiable thirst for knowledge, which for us has been a big part of it; you know, travelling and learning more, so we can impart more. And of course, a lot of bloody hard work.

“You know people are sometimes surprised when they walk in and see me there, or Darina, or Rachel [Allen], or sometimes all three of. But we’ve always been very hands-on and part of the day-to-day. Some days, it can be exhausting and demanding, even frustrating, but more then that, it is an incredibly exciting and stimulating place to be.

"In August, we had 63 new people come to the cookery school for five weeks, from 12 different countries, you know that brings an incredible energy to Ballymaloe.”

Bee's knees

The one lesson that has also stood the test of time in the school is food waste.

“I guess that was an ethos which we grew up with in Cullohill and then later in Ballymaloe, that nothing should be wasted. I love the idea of taking something that is leftover and making it absolutely delicious again the next day.

"I remember growing up, asking my mother what was for dinner, and she would often reply, ‘bee’s knees and spider’s ankles’, which meant that her head would disappear into the fridge, she’d pull out a few things and make up something delicious, nothing was wasted.

“I think when it comes to food waste, time, or lack thereof, is a big part of it. Back in the day, the economic model in many households was that one income could pay the mortgage and keep the children fed. Then the other person, and yes, it was usually the mother, would be at home and have the time to put into cooking, to make sure nothing went to waste. That isn’t possible in many households these days.

“Knowledge of cooking has decreased dramatically in the last 30 years. Because people aren’t cooking as much, they’ve lost trust in their own eye and nose, to know when something really is gone off or is quite fine to use. And that’s not criticising people, it’s more of a socio-economic and sociological problem.”

With that, those attending the Women & Agriculture conference can take the time to sit back and take the time to enjoy Rory’s cookery demonstration.

“It’s a wonderful time of year in which I’ll be embracing lots of autumnal flavours, it will be a real treat.”