Chef Darina Allen has defended running cookery classes during lockdown at Ballymaloe Cookery School for a group of international students.
The Irish Examiner reports that nine students from the United States, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom have been attending in-person classes at the east Cork school in recent weeks, despite Level 5 restrictions.
Ms Allen said the school felt it had a “strong responsibility” towards the students, who flew into Ireland in late December for two weeks of quarantine.
They had booked residential places costing almost €13,000 on Ballymaloe’s 12-week Certificate Course, due to start on January 4th.
Ms Allen said the students and cookery school were left in a “desperate dilemma” when Taoiseach Micheál Martin announced a full Level 5 lockdown on December 30th, which came into effect the following day.
“They had travelled long distances. Some have taken three-month career breaks. We felt we had a duty of care to these students,” Ms Allen said.
“We were told that the lockdown would be reviewed at the end of January so the students, who had already quarantined, decided to stay.”
'Ballymaloe bubble'
Following their 14-day quarantine, the students were offered the opportunity to join the “Ballymaloe Bubble”.
When lockdown was extended at the end of January, the decision was then taken to cancel the 12-week cookery course and offer the students a modified version.
The students had been in the country for about five weeks at this point, Ms Allen said. Classes and activities were organised and included cookery classes with the chef.
However, Ballymaloe management said the classes had since been halted after health and safety concerns were expressed.
The students, and all the staff, have been meticulous about everything
Ms Allen said Ballymaloe had done “everything in line” with public health guidelines and claimed the school was different to third-level institutions due to its residential setting.
“The students, and all the staff, have been meticulous about everything, from the 5km travel restrictions, to the social distancing. We know that one slip could make a difference to everybody," she said.
In a statement, Ballymaloe said the school was “confident that we made the right decision under the circumstances at the time and given our duty of care.”
