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.