My experience in Three Month Cooking Certificate

I always had a passion for food, and a desire from a young age to explore and experiment with the many flavours and shared experiences it can bring. First I learnt from my mother. It wasn't long before I mastered homemade scones while helping out in my parents B&B in the west of Ireland! For a while I was unsure where would be the best place for me to develop as a home cook, a chef, and simply as a lover of food until one day I heard about the Dublin Cookery School. It was late one night and I stumbled across an article on the school and there was a fire set alight in me. I knew this was the place for me but I decided to visit the school, to be sure to be sure! I needed a place where the focus was on hands-on cooking sprinkled with demos from engaging and inspiring tutors. I needed a place where I could be free and confident enough to experiment but also shown more traditional and time-tested approaches. I needed tutors from a diverse range of culinary backgrounds, all experts at their various skill-sets but also considering themselves still learning, ever curious! I needed a school that knew the best chefs and restaurant owners in the country. I needed to be exposed to best guest chefs! I needed to be surrounded by passionate, fun and dedicated students. I found all of this and much more at the Dublin Cookery School. To enroll I went to visit the school in the lovely town of Blackrock along the gorgeous Dublin coastline, nestled somewhere between Howth, Bray, the Wicklow Mountains and of course beautiful Dublin City. Wonderful fresh, homegrown produce and inspiration in every direction, be it sea or land. On one day we foraged with a local chef and discovered just what a variety of wild produce lay right under our noses all along the coastline and in nearby woods and urban areas. On another occasion we all visited an oyster farm in Waterford, where I shucked and tasted the freshest I had ever had, with buttery soda bread and a sprinkle of lemon. Such great ingredients don't require too much flourish! After this we had visit to a local brewery which was such an educational and delicious experience! We had now Michelin starred chefs come visit the school and teach for the day. We had people in to advise us on how to set up a food business. We had expert bakers come in to demonstrate the science of baking beautiful, mouth-watering bread sharing with us everything he learned in his time studying these traditional skills in France. We visited another cookery school to spend a day under its head chef. We had an opportunity to cook for the public once a month allowing us to demonstrate all the skills we had been working so hard to develop. On these days the school operated as a fully fledged "Pop-Up" restaurant and the sense of camaraderie and teamwork was palpable. We banded together and learned how a kitchen needs to work as one big harmonious organism with each person taking responsibility for their own station while ensuring no chef falls behind! This experience really stood me well when it came time for me to join a professional kitchen. During the three months I made friends from all over the world and friends that I will hold dearly for the rest of my life. The school staff has remained in regular contact and continued to provided me with a whole host of new job opportunities both home and abroad. You've probably gathered from all the above sentiments that I had an absolutely wonderful experience at the Dublin Cookery School, I loved my days there and I feel I could talk about it all day! I finished the certificate course back in March of 2015 but I still tell stories from my days there. If you are considering it, I recommend it so, so much. It was everything I hoped for and more. The level of experience was so broad and rich that I felt it was a remarkably good investment of my time, effort and money. It opened up so many doors for me. It introduced me to so many great people. The Dublin food scene is a wonderful melting pot of stellar chefs and passionate foodies all delving into a colorful palette of some of the best, fresh produce the world has to offer. Whether you want to do this as a career or simply take this as an opportunity to learn a whole set of eternally useful life-skills during your gap year (like me) why not learn from the best and do it in such a beautiful setting. And, trust me your family and friends will be forever grateful for the skills you will develop! Working in a kitchen is not just about cooking, it teaches you about teamwork, effective communication, interpersonal skills, time management, working under pressure, creative problem solving and the list goes on. What future employer would not admire such a list of personal qualities? Whatever future endeavors should you embrace all these skills will stand to you. That's all from me for now, hopefully I haven't kept you too long. I just want to say go for it! It was the best three months I ever had, both challenging and rewarding and I'd do it all over again with pleasure.