By the time Darina Allen, the eldest of nine, was 10 years old, she already knew how to make soda bread, colcannon, mashed potatoes, stews, simple cakes like a Victoria sponge, and scones.
You might think she was precocious. Allen, 70, is Ireland’s best-known advocate of Irish food, as well as a TV presenter, author, and co-founder of Ballymaloe Cookery School in Shanagarry, County Cork.
