We got the results of our wine exam yesterday – 83%! Yes, really. I have no idea how I did it and I don’t feel particularly knowledgeable about wine, but clearly something stuck. EIGHTY THREE PERCENT. Shocking stuff.

Our penultimate week meant I was back in the demo kitchen, which is very calm and quiet compared to the others. On Thursday I made Paul Flynn’s glazed pork belly with celeriac and potato mash and my teacher (and I quote) said “thank you for the best plate of food I’ve had in ages” (end quote)! High praise. It was a lovely recipe though, I’ll definitely be doing it again. Perhaps with less butter in the mash – they really, really like their butter here. I also made some truffles, lobster in cream sauce, puff pastry (2nd time – not as good as my first attempt) and rack of lamb. There were a few other things but I can’t remember them right now. We also got the recipe for one of the nicest truffles I’ve ever eaten which have a raspberry hidden in the middle and are just gorgeous. Definitely going to be experimenting with that one when I get home.

We have one more morning of cooking, 2 more demos, exams and then we’re finished! It’s weird to think a week tomorrow I’ll be on my way home, but I’m looking forward to it and I’ve got lots of new ideas and experiments to be getting on with. I would like to start filling my blank recipe book and need to start getting recipes from other people as well. I’m also excited to find out just how much I’ve actually learned.

Right, I’m off to practice making raspberry sauce, chicken, mayo and everything else for my practical. There is no way I’m getting all of it done in 3 hours. I also need to practice my presentation, it’s not my strong point. Then I’m going to try to revise some theory and file some notes. Fun, fun, fun!

I need 60% to pass and I really have no idea if I’ve done it or not. Fingers crossed. It doesn’t have any bearing on our food certificate though, so it won’t be too much of a disaster if I’ve failed. Just as long as I can get through the practical cookery exam. Which is a week today. Oh god.

Week 10 has flown by and suddenly I have 2 weeks to go. I am really enjoying it here, but I’m also getting impatient to go home now. It can get a bit boring being somewhere so quiet for 3 months, especially without any transport!

The main focus of this week has been our 3 course menus for our final exam. We have 3 lots of exams in total: a practical exam (the biggest chunk of the marks), a wine exam and a written exam (3 papers). Now that I think about it, there are a lot of 3s! Our wine exam is on Wednesday morning and our written papers are on the Friday of week 12.  Our practical exam is over 3 hours and mine is the Wednesday of week 12, at 9am. I’m absolutely terrified!

Anyway, we had to hand in our final menus and ingredient lists on Friday, so it’s completely set in stone now. Our menus are meant to be balanced, themed (not like a pirate theme or something, just ‘a farewell dinner’ and things like that), seasonal (or using ingredients we have in the glass houses at the moment) and we are also trying to showcase how much we’ve learned. They also have to be Ballymaloe recipes. With that in mind, my menu is……. (drum roll please)………….

Roasted beetroot, Ardsallagh goat’s cheese, rocket and balsamic vinegar

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Chargrilled chicken paillarde (butterflied chicken breast) with aioli, roasted cherry tomates and couscous with pinenuts

A green salad with Italian salad dressing (lemon juice and olive oil)

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Mini lemon sponge (told you I’d get it in!), vanilla bean ice cream and fresh raspberry sauce

So there you go. Now all I have to do is practice it, write a time plan and hopefully manage to cook and present it in 3 hours without completely breaking down and having to be carried off to some kind of institution. I chose things I really like to cook which I hope will help, but I’m nervous already so God knows what I’ll be like on the day. Best not to think about that I reckon.

Other than that, this week has been pretty good. I made puff pastry for the first time which worked out really well (I’ve got a load of it in the fridge so I’d better do something with that…), jointed a duck (very similar to a chicken), made a really nice sponge cake and iced it really badly and made a bunch of other things that I can’t bring to mind right now. Next week we get to do steak and lobster (not on the same day, that would be ridiculously decadent), pork loin and pork belly and on Wednesday afternoon our demo is made up of student suggestions. I suggested paella and we’re doing it, so I’m pleased about that.

Reports on the wine exam when it’s over. I’m sure it’ll be fine…

p.s. The picture above is one of the chickens sitting in the chicken food skip, see how many disgusting things you can spot. There is definitely a carcass of some description.