There has been a remarkable change in the Irish food scene over the past decade. We have happily absorbed and made our own some of the world's most famous flavours and dishes. We have gained a confidence and expectation around food which has resulted in increased choice both in the range of restaurants around the country and in the availability of high quality ingredients. We have taken to eating out much more regularly, and hence have become more informed about ingredients and techniques .

Established artisan producers are thriving both in the domestic and international scene, and fledgling producers are finding new ways of selling to the public by means of the newbie of the food industry - farmer's markets. At last we are encouraging and supporting a proper food market culture, something that is an intrinsic and essential component of a quality food industry. We are seeing a gradual backlash against plastic, chemically treated, processed food.

However another change is the steady decrease in the ability of people to cook. Cookery programmes are on television most nights, but most viewers would just like to eat the food, not necessarily cook it. We see food markets teeming with buyers dying to try out new ingredients. Organic growers are increasing their annual yields and sales. However lots of people buy these wonderful ingredients which are so familiar from restaurant menus, but bring them home and then haven't the faintest idea of what to do with them.

We have an increasing obesity problem stemming from a lack of education in basic nutrition and cooking skills. Ready meals are the favourite of many families, as busy schedules allow less and less time for home cooking. I was lucky to have a mother who was a nurse and who taught all the family about carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins and minerals - and she was a marvellous home cook. She never allowed junk food, deep fat fryers or Soda Stream machines into the house - much to the annoyance of my friends and I! 

All my siblings (I have lots of them) can cook and we all love food, though we hate food snobbery and fads. I always use this example to explain my stance on food fashion - imagine if an exquisite Italian beauty who is a whizz in the kitchen decided to cook for friends, and shirked tradition by pronouncing that Parmesan is out of fashion...how absurd this would sound. Food fashion is a sign of insecurity - the need to be accepted by means of your choice of ingredients. Good food is about simplicity, balance, unpretention, good ingredients, and not being a bore. 

I do think that the advantage of being Irish and loving food is that we have no real traditional food culture and with that comes freedom. Our traditional dishes can be named on one or two hands. Countries such as France, Italy, Spain have restraints imposed by tradition - we are free to borrow from all around the world and develop our own ways.  I don't believe in discarding all our old way though either, mind you hairy bacon doesn't feature in my house too often...

My mother's home was in Schull, West Cork and her family business (O'Keeffe's) was instrumental in sparking off what is now a very established artisan food industry in the area. Her parents and grandparents had a bottling company, a bakery, drapery, dressmakers and tailors, bar and grocery shop all operating out of a beautiful old premises on Main Street with a quaint courtyard behind. Electricity was generated in their own powerhouse - an innovation of my great-grandfather who was an inspired engineer and boat builder. 

In the 1960's The Courtyard developed into a multi-faceted business. There was a fantastic restaurant, food shop and cafe run by my uncle and aunt Jim and Tiller O'Keeffe. There were little craft shops and a bakery in the old courtyard, making it a really lovely place to browse and buy locally produced goods. It was a lifestyle store before we knew what lifestyle stores were and was way ahead of it's time to the delight of locals and holiday-makers alike. Jackie Bennett's lovely coarse bread was so special and was made each morning using traditional methods in the coal-fired bakery. From an early age the thought of the summertime treat of that bread with Nutella helped me endure the annual 10-hour trek from Monaghan (and later Dublin). We would set off down to Schull in the no-such-thing-as-a-bypass days - all the family squashed into the Renault 16, stopping for a well-earned break in the Crock of Gold in Cahir. That chocolatey snack was one of the highlights of the annual holidays as Nutella wasn't available in our local shop - Schull was way ahead of the crowd in the food stakes! Fresh cheeses and vegetables from The Courtyard shop, nectarines which were an exotic treat,  fish from the pier and even big fat lobsters waving their legs angrily at me as we brought them home to cook for a family party - all these memories stand out for me as being very special. I know that these experiences with good food were absorbed when I was a young child, and acted as a catalyst for the development of my own skills and interests in cooking.

So anyway why did I set up ? I just love cooking, and it's so easy. I always get the 'Oh it's easy for you' - but is is easy if you know the basics and aren't too ambitious relative to your knowledge and level of confidence. I wouldn't dream of piping pate, or doing anything remotely fiddly, I am far too lazy for that kind of thing. Knowing what goes well with what is my strength and I would like as many people as possible to get the same sense of satisfaction out of producing their own meal that I do - instead of pulling off the plastic wrap before sending the ready meal to the microwave. is not about learning how to re-create restaurant food at home - it is simply about learning how to cook healthy, interesting food with ease. 

I have a simple unpretentious system -  participants  sit around a big stainless steel island and watch what I do - then eat the results. I do not have a big classroom where everyone is stuck in rows straining to see what's going on.  There are courses for complete beginners, and also for experienced cooks who are fed up doing the same few things all the time and who need a bit of inspiration. Pastry and Breadmaking classes are hands-on as demonstration is not appropriate for these classes. Other classes are demo only though, as I have learnt through trial and error that people get very self-conscious cooking and chopping in front of strangers, they prefer to watch and listen then try everything out at home. 

Good food makes you feel good, and everyone can cook if they are shown how. There is more info. below on how I have reached this stage. This was supposed to be a brief introduction to me - it was not intended to be a lengthy essay so apologies if  you are bored senseless by now!

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