Darina Allen: A dream confection for a midsummer night

IT’S BECOME a bit of a tradition at the Ballymaloe Cookery School for the students to do a fundraiser during the term to support the East Cork Slow Food Education Project.

In recent times, a Pop Up dinner in the Garden Cafe at the Cookery School has been the most popular choice, also chosen by this term’s students.

Their theme was ‘A Midsummer Night’s Feast’. They read Shakespeare’s classic play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream several times over — and an Indian student from Mumbai read passages from the play at intervals during the meal in his charmingly dramatic way.