This cookery school in a former shirt factory has the wow factor, writes Marie-Claire Digby
Most keen cooks have a vision in their head, even if they don't have it in reality, of the kitchen of their dreams. State-of-the-art appliances, gleaming worktops and acres of prep space usually figure prominently. Lynda Booth, a mother of three from Blackrock, Co Dublin recently made her dream kitchen a reality, but she didn't just buy one oven and one hob, she bought 12 of each, and enough catering equipment to stock a purpose-built teaching kitchen that can comfortably accommodate 24 students.
The Dublin Cookery School opened its doors in September, in a 3,000sq ft former shirt factory that was given a five-month make-over by architects Studio M and builder Paul Oatway, and is now a showcase space that looks as much like a modern art gallery as a cookery school. "I wanted a wow factor from the minute people walk in the door," says Booth, a professionally trained chef who has worked at Ballymaloe House and Le Manoir au Quat' Saisons, and trained in patisserie with the Belgian chocolate company, Callebaut.
She spent more than two years looking for her ideal premises, and finally found it on a side street off Carysfort Avenue in Blackrock, just minutes from her family home, where she had previously been running small-scale cookery classes in her own kitchen.
The modest entrance to the new school gives little away, but once inside, it's clear that Booth's ambitions have been realised. There is a high ceiling with exposed steel trusses, banks of roof lights, a cool white colour scheme and carefully chosen art on the walls. "With the space and light and the ease of movement from one area to the next, it makes for a wonderful working environment," Booth says.
A warm, wide-plank wooden floor runs throughout the vast space that is partially divided into a reception area and shop, demonstration theatre, working kitchen and spacious dining area. Booth spent a considerable time deciding on her choice of flooring, before opting for the wood. "I saw it in Rick Stein's school and just knew when I saw it it was the right thing," she says.
The school offers a full range of day and evening courses, both practical and demonstration (prices start at €50), but the main impetus is on the one-month certificate courses, which feature input from guest teachers including Denis Cotter, Nevin Maguire and Paul Flynn, and culminate in the students running their own restaurant for a night. The next certificate course, which costs €2,950, begins on January 9th and there will be another in April. In the next few weeks, the short-course programme includes classes on breadmaking, Vietnamese cooking, Christmas food preparation, and tutored wine and champagne tastings, to be given by Booth and her team of tutors and guest lecturers.
Dublin Cookery School, 2 Brookfield Terrace, Blackrock, Co Dublin, 01-2100555, www.dublincookeryschool.com