TWICE A YEAR Darina Allen's three month cookery course at Ballymaloe House is booked solid, as would be professional cooks from Ireland and overseas learn the skills they hope will open doors for them into a career in catering.
Ballymaloe students range in age from 19 to 60 and their reasons for doing the course differ. Younger students are normally interested in a career in food from the outset, while the older students come for personal satisfaction or because they want to change career or start their own small catering business.
However, Darina Allen has words of caution for those who think that success in the food business begins and ends with being a good cook. "Being able to cook is just one aspect of what is required," she stresses.
"I think people need to get experience before they set up on their own, and they should spend time with someone who works according to a similar ethic using fresh foods and herbs and taking note of the seasons in their food selection and preparation,"she says.
"Those who choose to do outside catering need to be very self confident, incredibly methodical and very organised. By self confident, I mean confident in their ability to know how much food is needed and to cook that amount. If they are unsure, they will over provide and end up losing a lot of money.
"With a good caterer there is no waste and this is a matter of skill and judgment which has to be learned.
Good caterers can certainly make a good living. There is a growing demand for their service as people are becoming busier and busier and less willing to spend time slaving in the kitchen. A good cook has a passport to travel anywhere we have about 100 jobs on our notice board at the moment from people all around the world who want to employ our students."
Monique McQuaid is a graduate of Ballymaloe who runs her own catering business in Dublin. Married with a young son, she finds catering fits in well with her domestic commitments.
"I can usually arrange things so that I work about three days a week, and I have a team of people who help me with preparation and serving. It is possible to do it all yourself, but if you do it ends up being a very solitary job," she says.
Monique's clients include the Aviation Authority and the Motor Import group, for whom she recently catered a 1,700 guest reception for the launch of the new BMW 5 series.
"At the end of the Ballymaloe course I felt I was not ready to run my own business so I went to Paris and then to London to get experience," she says. "I worked in wine bars and on a barge in the dock lands and then I got a job with the National Magazine company as the managing director's cook for corporate functions. I also got the opportunity to do some food styling, which was very enjoyable," she says.
Before moving back to Ireland five years ago, she was cook to the Sainsbury family and spend a summer as a private cook in a villa on a Greek island. "It sounds glamorous, but it's very hard work and you're on your feet from maybe 6 a.m.," she says.
"But it was terrific experience. My client list has been built up slowly, mainly by word of mouth, and I have built up equipment as I've gone along by buying something I needed each time I was paid for a job."
WHEN MARY O'Sullivan left school she initially studied radiography before switching to hotel management at DIT Cathal Brugha Street. "I did the three year course in hotel management, but it was the cooking I really loved so then I did a cookery course with Alix Gardner and launched myself into a career in cooking from there," she says.
Mary now runs her own catering business from Monasterevin, Co Kildare, where she also teaches cookery. Before setting up on her own she gained experience in Ireland and at Raymond Blanc's restaurant in England, and last year she had a summer job offer from Joan Collins which she had to refuse because of commitments at home.
"When you love cooking the test of the hard work is worthwhile, but there is a lot involved in getting things ready, packing the car and hauling everything off to wherever you're going," she says.
"I think a flair for cooking is the most important element, and it is important to keep up with fashions in food. Last year I took six months off to travel in France and Italy, because when you work on your own you can become quite isolated.
"The best thing about being a cook is that you can go anywhere and be in demand," she says. But if you're working for yourself you also have to have a head for business or at least be doing well enough to be able to pay someone to look after the tax and the other paperwork, because it can be tricky and time consuming.
