It's a commonplace of visiting Ballymaloe House and Cookery School to remark – in awed terms – of the astonishing energy of Darina Allen.
Mrs Allen roars around the place like a dervish, whether conducting cookery classes, helping out at the house, organising literary festivals, recalling everyone's name correctly, and managing the huge infrastructure of people and products and whatnot that a big organisation like Ballymaloe requires.
But it's not just energy that drives Darina Allen. In fact, we reckon her greatest attribute is not, in fact, her energy. What is more important is her sense of enquiry: she is always curious, always learning. She doesn't just want to know: she needs to know.
She needs to know how Slow Food is doing in San Francisco, and who is serving the best natural wines in Paris, and who makes the best country butter in West Cork. She needs to know the hottest destination to eat in London, and what they are landing off the boats in Ballycotton harbour.
Energy goes out, for sure, but information is endlessly, endlessly, going in, firing her up, and fuelling her drive, fuelling her energy, creating the fission that has made her into an international name, and an international symbol, of all that is good about food.
This Megabites is dedicated to Darina and what she and her crew managed to achieve at the Ballymaloe Lit Fest.
