This much I know: Rory O’Connell

I became a chef totally by accident.

I went to university to study law but after a year I knew that it was not for me. I messed around with auctioneering and a few other things and then my mother suggested I go down to visit my sister Darina (Allen) in Ballymaloe. At the end of a summer spent working in reception I still didn’t know what I wanted to do, but I loved the food: the staff eat the same as the guests. So I asked if I could work in the kitchen until Christmas, just to learn how to make some basic things like a hollandaise sauce, and how to cook the incredible fish from Ballycotton. I reckoned after that I’d be ready to make my way into a proper profession. Within a week in the kitchen the penny dropped — I discovered that not only was I capable of cooking, I also enjoyed doing it.

I was a quiet, not madly adventurous child. I had a really beautiful, free-range upbringing in Co Laois. We had a garden and I remember apple trees, damsons and wild mushrooms. I’d leave the house in the morning and wouldn’t return home until evening and there was always a feeling of safety. There were nine of us. Darina is the eldest and I’m the second youngest.

Food was a big part of our lives. My love of it is due to my mother. She was a beautiful person. I always looked forward to the next meal.

If I could cook for anybody in the world, I’d invite the CEO of Monsanto to dinner. I’d serve him up something delicious and then I’d ask him not to mess with our food, to stop buying up seeds in order to modify them.

I don’t spray my fruit or vegetables. The use of organic produce is at the core of everything we teach at Ballymaloe. It colours everything we do.

In order to be a good cook you need to love your ingredients and care where they come from and about the people who produce that food.

Feeding people good food and teaching them about how to create it is a really nice thing to do. However it is very demanding work as you are constantly giving out information. I do love people but need some time to unwind on my own.

I’ve lived most of my life on my own and I am used to it. I’m not single by choice, it’s not a conscious decision.

I don’t know if there is an afterlife, it’s probably unlikely, but it is comforting to think that there is. I’m an irrational combination of believer and non-believer. My mother had a great faith and I find myself saying a few little prayers every day, never entirely sure where they are going.

I‘m gay but it was never an issue. I never met any hostility or anything like that. But it changes everything, it changes convention.

If I could be someone else for a day, I’d be someone with an unbelievable singing voice, or a great jockey. I look at the Irish racing pages pretty much every day.

My idea of misery is having to work with bad quality food.

If I could change one thing in our society it would be the health system. Everybody is entitled to immediate and proper access to care. It is a basic right of all humans. As is access to good, affordable food. I often wonder why that is not written into the Constitution like the right to free legal aid. Good food it is so important for health and happiness.

I eat well and swim quite a lot. I have just discovered boxing and train a couple of times a week. It’s just fantastic. It is physically demanding, like a dance. My trainer is trying to teach me the movement and skill involved. I’m hopeless but I love it.

I was recently at the MAD Symposium in Copenhagen, led by Noma —they are all about using foods only grown in their own climate. We had raw beef seasoned with ants — the ants were to replace the juice of the lemons which they can’t grow in Denmark. There is no reason why what has happened in Denmark with Noma can’t happen here, a movement to cook with foods only grown in Ireland. We have an incredible climate.

One of the lessons life has taught me so far is to be humble.

Rory O’Connell joins ‘Banter’ at the Kinsale Arts Festival to talk about his work in and out of the kitchen at Ballymaloe and his views on food and food culture on September 27 at 1pm at the Lord Kingsale. www.kinsaleartsfestival.com