The Ruby Apron

In January of 2015 I landed in Cork City, Ireland and headed out to the country to begin a crazy adventure at Ballymaloe Cookery School in Shanagarry Co. Cork. I spent twelve weeks cooking fantastic food with the best ingredients on the middle of a stunning organic farm in Ireland – it sounds too be good true right? I look back, and I still can’t quite believe just how much I learned in those twelve weeks. I am confident chef with strong values and beliefs about ingredients – how they are grown, how they are purchased, how they are cooked, and how they are eaten. I came home with ideas swimming through my head, and quickly those ideas started to come together to form The Ruby Apron.

I believe that in our fast paced society we have some how lost something that is a critical part of our daily lives. Somewhere along the line we see food as something that should be cheap and fast, but we don’t really think about what we are putting into our bodies. We need to go back to the basics, slow down, and enjoy the simple things in life like a delicious meal at the table, without technology with family and friends.

I hope to inspire people to spend time in the kitchen, to think about food in a different way, to realise food can be quick and easy, but healthy too. I support local farmers and producers, I believe we should eat what’s in season, that quality ingredients need little tweaking to make a delicious meal, and really feel that we can all be great cooks – it starts with a good recipe, the right ingredients and a few basic pieces of kitchen equipment.

“… I would like to say that I am totally into elitist food, I’m afraid… not afraid at all actually, pretty proud of it, but what I really think is that all of the food being sold in [grocery stores] should be elitist because all of the food being sold should be good for everybody…” – Rory O’Connell