
Just the other day I caught myself up with what little association I have with food production, so it was with great interest I opened the Irish Times to Fiona's
interview with Darina Allen, author of "Forgotten Skills," a primer for folks to brush up on foundational culinary skills.
Allen comes off as such an insufferable food snob that I doubt I'd buy the book. She appears to be choked with the smug assumption that if you are not a farmer preparing your own food, then you're a witless dupe of the multinationals. The classes she offers demand labour and time intensive devotion to getting food on the table. She holds folks to impossible standards.
"Darina Allen has been filling these gaps in knowledge for a while now, providing courses not just in cooking, but in all manner of what she calls 'forgotten skills', including vegetable-growing, bee-keeping, pig-curing, keeping chickens, and smoking your own food. 'They started off quite slowly but they really have been gathering momentum.' "
Most folks don't have the capacity for this degree of involvement in food preparation. Her tone is as self-righteous as those folks who prattle on about "reducing their carbon footprint" and "green living" at every moment. You're not better than anyone else just because you grow your own food and spend your days devoted to getting meals on the table. Her approach is scolding and makes folks feel bad about themselves. After a hard day on the job and raising kids, folks deserve their leisure time and should not be guilted into tilling dirt or animal husbandry. Allen sounds mean-spirited when shares the story about the woman who was about to throw away the butter she hadn't realized she made. Her tone was unbearably arrogant.
It strikes me that Darina Allen's vision is also financially impossible for most families.
"The only downside to her theorising is the cost: 'We’re simply going to have to pay a bit more for our food – that’s the reality.'
People attending her courses are already aware of that reality: the 12-week certificate courses cost €9,795. Darina makes no apologies. 'A lot of people look at the prices and think ‘Oh my God, it’s so expensive’, and it is expensive, but it’s expensive because it has to be that price to give the quality we want to give. A lot of times people don’t charge enough to allow themselves to do a good enough job.'"
No one wants to hear that they have to pay more for anything right now. Allen's tuition fees are higher than what many universities charge . Her food revolution must only be for the rich. How funny to reason that charging nearly ten thousand euro for a course in farming is necessary so that she can do a good job. The manure has to be the highest quality poo in the country. Anyone would be happy to muck about for that kind of profit.