Basic ingredients: Ireland’s food queen Darina Allen oversees 12-week courses at a school that opened in 1983 and is located in the middle of a 100-acre organic farm. She is helped by a team that includes her daughter-in-law, the cookery writer and TV chef Rachel Allen. There are more than 30 shorter one and half-day courses, including more hands-on farmer-friendly days such as how to keep chickens, how to build a smoker and how to cure a pig in a day, plus afternoon demos.
They say: “The connection between farming and cooking is vital. We teach using the best we can grow, rear or obtain locally”
We say: They claim to grow 40 different types of tomato in their market greenhouses. Slackers beware – you may get to cook up to 20 recipes a day.
+ 353 21 4646785; www.cookingisfun.ie
