Darina Queen of Cooks
With a new cookbook under her belt, Darina Allen gives Andrea Smith tips for a stress-free Christmas
I’m 73 and the subliminal message for people my age was that we were kind of over the hill and needed to stay in, so I was lucky I was able to keep myself occupied,”
Celebrated chef Darina Allen is recalling how she used lockdown to write her new cookbook, while making jam for her farm shop and teaching online classes at Ballymaloe Cookery School in Cork.
She lives in the grounds of the school, which is situated in the middle of a 100- acre organic farm and gardens.
“Thank God I had that, because It was very difficult for people my age who couldn't go outside the door or go for a walk,” she says. “¬ They had nothing to do all day except listen to the radio and television, which was making them even more anxious.”
Not that anyone who knows Darina would be surprised that she wanted to keep busy, because she is fizzing with energy and unquestionably always at the top of her game.
She looks wonderful, and says that she likes wearing bright colours as they reflect her mood when she’s feeling “jolly and energetic.” She doesn't believe in dieting but feels that a lifetime of eating fresh food has helped her stay trim.
“I’ve never dyed my hair, and it's just white in case anybody thinks it’s blonde,” she smiles. “I use absolutely no face products, but I get my makeup done if I'm doing an event or I am on TV.”
Darina speaks in a crisp, cut-glass accent that hasn’t acquired a hint of a Cork inflection, although she has lived in the Rebel County for more than half a century. She is originally from Cullohill, Laois, where she grew up as the eldest of the late Lily and Dick O’Connell’s nine children.
Sadly, her dad passed away from lung cancer aged 45 when Darina was only 14, and her mum was eight months pregnant. “It taught us resilience,” she says, stoically.
Darina’s mother was also a strong woman, who would later go on to open The Sportman’s Inn in Cullohill, where her cooking, particularly her scones and pies, were big hits locally. Darina learned to cook by watching her mum and says that Lily felt strongly that food was incredibly important to maintaining good health. “It was very much ingrained in us that really good, nourishing food would keep you well, as far as possible,” she says.
Darina attended boarding school and admits to being a somewhat wild child who wasn’t particularly studious. She probably couldn’t have imagined that she would go on to be one of the most influential and accomplished food innovators in the country. Her aim when she left school, she says, was to “find a nice chap, who could keep me in the life I was accustomed to, and then we would have children and a shop and go on picnics.”
However, she went to Dublin to study hotel and catering management, where she learned that a farmer’s wife in Cork with no formal training had opened a restaurant in her house, and was using all of her own produce.
Darina wrote to Myrtle Allen seeking work, and arrived in Ballymaloe in 1968 aged 19. At that point, she could not have imagined that she would marry Myrtle’s eldest son Tim, who was the first person she met there. She was very impressed by Myrtle, because most chefs at that time were men. Myrtle was constantly innovating and created a different menu every day, depending on what vegetables were best in season in the garden, or which fish had come in by boat.
“This was unheard of at that time and I was intrigued by her,” says Darina, who always called her late mother-in-law “Mrs Allen.” “I was so delighted to get the opportunity to work with this extraordinary woman, who reinforced my mother's values around food. Ivan, my father-in-law, was also amazing.”
Darina recalls how at that time, it was considered “amateurish” in restaurant circles to have a different menu every day, but, she notes wryly, it’s funny how things evolve in time.
“It’s beyond super cool now,” she says.
“Myrtle was a natural teacher and we all learned so much from her.” Darina considers herself fortunate that Myrtle lived to be 94, passing in 2018. Her own mum died 12 years ago aged 83, and it’s clear that Darina held both women in very high regard.
As for Tim, Darina didn't think that she would end up with the “funny-looking, long-haired guy in shorts” that she met when she first arrived, particularly as he had “lots of girlfriends.” Nonetheless, after becoming engaged in Copenhagen, they were married in 1970 when she was 21 and he was 20.
“I always joke that there was nobody else much around in the winter,” she laughs.
“And someone who could cook the supper as well.”
So what has been the secret to their long marriage? “I don’t know,” she shrugs. “Keeping on, keeping on and communicating and all that. Tim has always been a great support, and, of course, the way to everyone’s heart is through their tummy, in the end.”
In the early days, Tim was in horticulture, Darina made jam and they ran a B&B during the summer, before starting the cookery school in 1983. Ballymaloe Cookery School has become hugely successful, and it is a great source of pleasure to Darina that there are so many separate businesses operating within the extended family.
“There are about 15 different businesses and some of them are under the family umbrella,” she says. ”Some are tiny businesses like running farmers’ markets and doing outside catering, and others are big like Cully and Sully and Ballymaloe Foods. All are using food as a base and are continuing what Myrtle and Ivan originally created.”
Darina says they all love what they do, and all of the businesses are financially independent of each other, which is “very, very important.”
Working with family can be notoriously tricky and many of us simply wouldn't be able to do it, so how do the Allen’s manage? “We have a big family business meeting every three months, and regular ones here at the cookery school, where everyone can put in their tuppence ha’penny-worth and suggest things. And then if an issue arises - and they do come up - you try to solve them without too much aggro, and that's a skill in itself.”
Speaking of aggro, when asked for her tips to help make Christmas dinner go smoothly, Darina says that much of the food prep can be done ahead of time. This includes the cake, puddings, gravy, cranberry sauce and stuffing, all of which can be made in advance and frozen.
She is also adamant that it should not just be one person’s responsibility to provide the spread, and the occasion can be a teaching experience for younger family members.
Darina advises making a list and allocating the various tasks, such as laying the table, and says that spreading the load can help to avoid stress and tension as well as being a fun, bonding experience.
“It can prevent a bust-up on Christmas Day because the poor unfortunate mother or whoever is doing most of the work is absolutely exhausted,” she says. “It can be a recipe for disaster if people get overtired and have a few drinks as somehow things can go awry. So it’s good if everybody in the family can get involved in the fun and preparation.”
Darina feels that while people often flirt with the idea of doing something different, in the end, they really just want what they had as children. The trick is to keep it simple. “You don't need to have 58 things on the menu,” she laughs.
With so many amazing chefs in the family - including her famous daughter-in- law, Rachel Allen - Darina and the extended clan usually go to Ballymaloe House for Christmas Day. She has 11 grandchildren aged from 21 down to five, and feels lucky that they all live close by.
“Sometimes we have an early Christmas dinner at our house, so everybody gives a hand with that,” she says.
Darina wrote How to Cook: ¬ The 100 Essential Recipes Everyone Should Know as she was concerned about young people leaving home without basic cooking skills. ¬The way she sees it, there is a huge emphasis on academic subjects at school but many youngsters are unable to feed themselves properly.
She feels so strongly about it, she has started a campaign to ask education minister Norma Foley to incorporate practical cooking classes for every child into the school curriculum. She would love to encourage the readers of Woman’s Way to go online on uplift.ie and sign her petition.
“We're failing in our duty of care to young people by not offering them a proper, rounded education,” she says. “I would like practical cooking to be looked on as a core subject in the curriculum, or at least a compulsory component for Junior Cert and transition year.”
Darina recalls how one senior businesswoman phoned her in tears because she and her family were at home during lockdown and she couldn’t cook. “She could run the country, but she could barely make toast for her family and suddenly realised how unskilled she was in some areas,” she recalls.
How to Cook contains everyday staples and recipes that form the basis of cooking, because Darina believes that getting to grips with basic cooking techniques gives people the confidence to build on their skills and become adventurous with their food.
"When you teach someone how to cook, you give them a gift that will forever enhance their lives,” she says.
Darina Allen: How to Cook - The 100 Essential Recipes Everyone Should Know is out now. See cookingisfun.ie