HELP!! Ballymaloe Cookery Course?

iredia

Hi,

I am thinking of doing the 12 month cookery course in Ballymaloe Cookery School. I know that it is 10k however I would get a loan for it, if I thought it was worth it.

Has anybody done the course and what did you think of it?

What were the positive and negative things of the course?

Were you able to secure employment easily after the course and what kind of positions they you get?

Is the course well recognized internationally?

I would really appreciate any answers.

Thanks a million!!

vic20

I did it way back in the eighties so it's probably evolved a bit since then

It's main failing I found was that it didn't teach anything about the pressures of a working kitchen. I got a hell of a fright going from there to a busy hotel kitchen!:D

iredia wrote: »

Hi,

I am thinking of doing the 12 month cookery course in Ballymaloe Cookery School. I know that it is 10k however I would get a loan for it, if I thought it was worth it.

Has anybody done the course and what did you think of it?

What were the positive and negative things of the course?

Were you able to secure employment easily after the course and what kind of positions they you get?

Is the course well recognized internationally?

I would really appreciate any answers.

Thanks a million!!

clappyhappy

Would you not consider doing weekend or week long course first to sus it out.
E10,000 is a huge amount of money. Speaking as a qualified chef and catering lecturer would you not think of applying to some IT to do the full time professional cookery course. Or why not get a job in a hotel or a cafe for a few weeks to see if being a chef is for you.
Offer to work for free for a few weekends to gain experience and see what its really like.
I know people who have done the weekend and one day classes there and they enjoyed them but it wasn't hands on, do your research, as previous poster said going from there to the "real" world is a big difference.

iredia

Thanks so much for your responses!!

10k is a lot of money to be investing alright.

I have heard that the course isn't very hands on?

Do you know what were the positive and negative aspects of the course?

Is there a lot of employment in this area at the moment? What would be the starting salary for someone having completed this course?

Do you know is the course well recognized internationally?

Are there other course out there that would give you the same skills, which are not as expensive?

Thanks so much.

Lucyn

I've done lots of cookery courses and upon comparison, have found the Ballymaloe one (shorter one) to be way overpriced. I was very disappointed but glad I did the shorter one to find this out and didn't waste €10k. They are well able to talk the talk but I think their name has gone to their head.

(Also, I like Darina but for some reason Rachel really annoys me! Too fakey-fakey)

Swiper the fox

Lucyn wrote: »

I've done lots of cookery courses and upon comparison, have found the Ballymaloe one (shorter one) to be way overpriced. I was very disappointed but glad I did the shorter one to find this out and didn't waste €10k. They are well able to talk the talk but I think their name has gone to their head.

(Also, I like Darina but for some reason Rachel really annoys me! Too fakey-fakey)

Is your comment about Rachel Allen taken from personal experience or is it from her television persona, the reason I ask is that I was never that keen on her or her recipes but In the past couple of years I've met(if you could call it that) her twice and she was absolutely lovely, very sweet to my little girls(who didn't have a clue who she was) so I've gained a lot of respect for her. The fakey/wakey thing is easy to direct at someone with her accent but I don't believe it anymore.

Lucyn

Both. She was at Ballymaloe when i did my course and obviously I've seen her on tv too. But it's just my own opinion. I really do like Darina though. I love her practicality. She scraps every last bit out of the bowl, uses butter wrappers when sweating vegetables, wastes nothing. Great habits to get into.

Sorry, going off topic.....:o

Ddad

I did the course 10 years ago and went on to work in the industry and get my degree and masters after it. It's a 12 week course btw. You do four mornings of cooking for about three hours.

Where to start, you'll get out of the course what you put in....the harder you work and the more organised you are the more you will learn and prosper. I sat at the front for all of the demos, took on any extra work I could get and tried to cook the most challenging dishes available on any given day. You will learn loads and the ethos of the cookery school is great. I'd have to agree about Darina; she's a hell of a grafter and detests waste.....I worked in an IT and they could learn a lot about stock control and cost management from Ballymaloe.

A lot of people in the indutry won't give the ballymaloe qualification the time of day. All you need though is a start in a good kitchen and you can build from there. There are also quite a few people who have great time for Ballymaloe and some very good people have started their careers there and gone on to cook in the very best restaurants in the world, Noma, the fat duck, El Bulli. But you can bet those people were gifted, hard working and ambitious.

In ballymaloe you are free most evenings so there is also the option of working (probably for free) in a local restaurant to broaden your experience and your CV. Tiring; but it's only three months.

As regards doing a professional cookery course in an IT. They are less intensive typically and in my experience less pressurised. However, 10k could subsidise you nicely while you do a full time course and work part time; in an IT in a cheaper area to live e.g. Sligo or Tralee.

I really enjoyed my time there and I'd honestly say it was a life transforming experience. Will it lead you to riches? not immediately. Is it a good springboard to a career in the culinary arts? definitely.

Feel free to PM me I'd be more than happy to chat to you about it. I haven't been back in a couple of years (to the school) but some of my friends still work there and I live locally so I'd probably be able to help you with specifics.

I just noticed you are considering getting a loan to fund the course, bear in mind you would have to repay that on a minimum wage job and support yourself. That isn't a path I'd recommend.