Authors: Marita Conlon-McKenna
‘People say it will pass. That time heals,’ said Bill. ‘I tell you … they have no bloody idea. No bloody idea at all.’
Rob swallowed hard, recognizing the understanding in the older man’s eyes.
‘Here, let me get you another pint,’ offered Bill, calling the barman over. ‘One for the road!’
Lucy was fed up. She’d met Finn a few times lately, and they had got on brilliantly, and she had waited and waited for him to be the one to phone or text her and ask her out properly, not just the two of them hanging out like they did. She really liked him, and she thought maybe he felt the same way, too, but he was doing nothing about it. Maybe he already had a girlfriend!
Phone me! Phone me, phone me!
She willed for Finn to contact her … but there was a great big nothing.
At least she had managed to get a temporary Christmas job four days a week wrapping gifts in the Avoca Store, but on 24 December she would be back to being broke and unemployed as she faced into the New Year.
‘Well, if you want to do something in the New Year, why don’t you go and sign up for Alice’s cookery class?’ advised her mum as they began to put up the Christmas decorations.
‘Learn to cook?’
‘Yes, go and learn how to cook properly. I wish I had learned when I was younger. Alice, as well as being one of my best friends, is also an amazing cook. She’s a total
professional,’ explained Nina Brennan, ‘and she is running the cookery course at home in the house. Why don’t you phone her?’ Nina, her face serious, sat down on the side of the bed. ‘It might be fun. Alice says it’ll only be a small group, and she really is a great cook. She worked as a chef in one of the top restaurants ever when she was younger. She gave it all up when she had the kids. But each time we eat over at Alice’s it’s like going to one of the best restaurants. She’s only taking a small group to teach, but maybe it’s something you might enjoy. You’ll definitely use it.’
Lucy had to admit her culinary skills left a lot to be desired. Her repertoire of meals was limited. She usually stuck to pasta in a homemade tomato-type sauce or curry with rice and salads.
‘Alice is nervous starting off this venture, worried she won’t get enough people wanting to learn to cook and join her cookery school, so it would be lovely to be able to support her a bit.’
‘Can I think about it, Mum?’
‘Of course. Your dad and I would make a contribution towards it, but with the proviso that once you started you would be expected to finish it. It is only one night a week, after all.’
Lucy flushed. She had abandoned the expensive nail-care course she had signed up to last spring, bored beyond reason at filing and polishing nails all day. Her dad had ranted about the money she’d wasted. She had never given cookery the slightest consideration.
‘Why don’t you call over to her?’ urged her mother, looking for the fairy lights. ‘I’m sure Alice can fill you in about what kind of things she intends teaching people to cook.’
Lucy thought about it. It was rather appealing, the idea of being able to cook something that involved more than a pot of boiling water and a non-stick pan. She’d probably be hopeless, but maybe tomorrow she’d drop in on Alice and ask her all about it.
Alice was trawling through her extensive collection of cookbooks and cookery notebooks, trying to build up a selection of recipes and dishes that she could use to demonstrate to and teach a class. They would only have two and a half hours together on a Tuesday evening, so anything too complicated or time-consuming, no matter how delicious, was ruled out. She had decided to teach them how to make one main course and either one starter or dessert per class. That would be enough for most people to take in; obviously she would add some accompanying vegetable or salad dishes if there was time.
Trying to whittle down her favourite recipes was a task in itself after a lifetime of cooking. Chefs, like most people, had a handful of signature dishes they cooked over and over again, and it was easy to get stale. A top chef should know it was good to introduce something new, something unexpected, and hopefully with a completely fresh taste sensation. She was determined not only to teach them how to cook some classic dishes, but also to encourage them to stretch themselves a little!
Reading back through some of her notebooks from the time she trained in Paris and from her days cooking with Myles Malone in Wilde, she had to admit her writing was hard to read. Even now she struggled to decipher some of the words as she began putting all the recipes up on the computer
in a special folder she had set up for her cookery school. She was rereading a recipe for a cassoulet of beans when the doorbell went.
‘Hey, Lucy!’ She smiled, inviting her friend Nina’s daughter inside. She had always had a soft spot for Lucy, who seemed different from her sister and brothers. She was big into music and bands, and had lost her job and her boyfriend, and now was back living with Nina and David – which had to be awful for her, and a bit of a strain for everyone else.
‘Mum was telling me about the cookery classes you are going to give, and I wanted to find out more and talk to you about maybe joining.’
Alice led her down to the kitchen.
‘I was just about to make some coffee, would you like a cup?’
‘Yes, thanks.’
Lucy was a pretty little thing. She had the same grey-green eyes and perky nose as her mother. Alice got out the biscuit tin, hoping that Sean had had the decency to leave a few of the chocolate chunk and peanut cookies she’d made only two days ago.
She watched as Lucy studied her shelf of cookbooks and the notebooks lying on the table.
‘I’m just going through years of recipes to find ones to use for the class. Other people collect silver or glass or perfume bottles or teddy bears, while I collect cookery books! I hadn’t realized just how many I’d amassed. This notebook here, with the pictures of cats on the front … I began that one when I was a little girl, cooking in the kitchen with my mother. See that stain? That was from the sponge cake we were mixing together. I’d dip my finger in the mixture and eat it,’ Alice said, remembering.
‘Wow!’
‘Do you like cooking, Lucy?’
‘Yeah, I suppose so. I’ve always liked making stuff, and seeing it turn out all right. I get a kick out of it. Though there are only a handful of things I cook. I usually end up sticking to the same old recipes: like pasta and curry for my friends, or burgers, fried chicken or sausages at home. I wouldn’t mind learning how to make some new things, and how to do them properly.’
‘My aim is to take some wonderful dishes that are tasty and well-presented. And teach a selection: ones that are simple to cook and others that are a bit more complicated, but definitely have the wow factor. Especially if you are having a dinner party. Good food is really what matters, whether you’re cooking for one or for fifty people!’
‘Are you just going to demonstrate how to make things?’ Lucy asked.
‘Oh no. I’ll show everyone, but then they’ve got to turn around and make the dish themselves. It’s the only way to learn.’
‘I guess so, because Mum and I are always watching
MasterChef
and all those kind of programmes, but we can’t really make any of the things.’
‘Cooking is hands-on.’ Alice laughed. ‘And that is what these classes are all going to be about. The course will start after the New Year and run for sixteen weeks, and costs 320 euros which works out at twenty euros a night.’
‘It sounds great. I’d love to do something different. I don’t know if Mum told you, but the music store I worked in closed down.’
‘Yes, I was sorry to hear about it,’ Alice said gently. ‘There
seems to be so much changing at the moment, and your generation is taking the brunt of it. It must be hard for you.’
Lucy nodded.
‘Change is always awful. We humans aren’t very good at it. Most of the time we want to curl up and hide and pretend it’s not happening to us, get our lives back the way they were … though sometimes that’s just not possible … we can’t go back … can’t turn back time no matter how much we want to … we have to go forward.’
Lucy was thoughtful, nibbling at a circle of biscuit.
‘So, Lucy, that’s what I’m doing … with this school … going forward. Trying something new, and hoping that the people who come along to learn will enjoy it, too.’
‘Sounds great,’ said Lucy. ‘I’d love to give it a try, if that’s OK, Alice.’
‘I’d love to have you.’ Alice laughed. ‘You’re the seventh person on my list.’
‘Can I pay you by the week?’ Lucy asked. ‘I’m not working at the moment, and I don’t want Mum or Dad forking out for this. I want to pay it myself, if that’s OK with you?’
‘Of course, Lucy, love, whatever suits you.’
As Alice watched Lucy walk down the path she had to admire the young girl. It would be a pleasure to teach Nina’s daughter how to cook.
Alice could feel the tension slip away from her after only twenty-four hours in Wexford, staying in Joy’s house near the beach. The place was practically deserted, and Alice loved to sit in the big cushioned window seat watching the constantly changing seascape. Joy and Malcolm had bought the house only twelve years ago, and nowadays Joy spent as much time as she could there. There was no traffic, no crowds, no stress, no rush, only water, sand, fresh air and lots of quiet – which was exactly what Alice needed.
‘Come down and chill out after Christmas … you’re welcome to spend New Year in Curracloe with me if you want,’ Joy had offered.
This Christmas had been a lot easier than the disastrous one last year, when Alice and the kids had toughed it out at home. She had spurned offers to go to her brother’s house for Christmas Day. She wanted to keep the bloody tradition, even if it made her miserable. She’d cooked the usual huge turkey and ham and all the trimmings, and remembered feeling she would choke on the turkey meat as she tried to
pretend everything was normal, when it totally wasn’t! She had spent St Stephen’s Day sobbing upstairs alone in the bedroom, cursing Liam and blaming him for destroying her life, destroying Christmas!
This year had been very different: she and Jenny and Sean had spent Christmas with her brother Tim and his wife Patsy and Erin, her dad Barry joining them there, too. Conor and Lisa had gone down to Cork to Lisa’s parents. Alice had brought along a baked ham and a pudding and her Christmas sherry trifle, and had never imagined that she could have had such a relaxed and easy Christmas Day. The day had started with Christmas drinks next door at Molly and Jack’s, with no worries as she wasn’t on duty cooking, then her dad had collected her, Jenny and Sean, and driven them to Rathgar, where Tim and Patsy had served up a fabulous Christmas feast. They’d stayed over that night and she hadn’t got to bed till all hours as Tim and herself and her dad had reminisced about their childhood. The next day Jenny and Sean had been invited to have dinner with Liam and Elaine in their apartment.
‘Go!’ she had told them. ‘I’m fine here with Tim and Patsy and Erin. We’ve a mound of food to get through.’
Joy had invited her to come to Wexford after Christmas.
‘Beth’s on duty all over the New Year in St Vincent’s Hospital. You know what it’s like – the young trainee nurses get all the worst shifts – so I’ve no intention of staying on in Dublin on my own.’
Alice had accepted, glad to escape to the seaside. The kids had their own post-Christmas and New Year plans, catching up with friends that were home from London and Canada for
the holidays. Jenny was heading back to Galway for New Year, and Sean and a few of the lads were renting a house in Lahinch.
So Alice had packed her bag and brought the dog with her, looking forward to the lazy days ahead and long walks on the beach, and the utter heaven of being away from it all. Lexy had jumped out of the car the minute they arrived and run down across the sand to the water’s edge, barking at the tide.
‘Well, she’s happy to be here.’ Joy laughed, welcoming them both.
The beach house was bright and cosy. The logs in the wood-burning stove gave great heat, which warmed the pine kitchen and snug sitting room with its stunning view of the whole bay. Joy and she were content to read and relax most days, watching the changing colours of the sea below, the shifting tides and water birds and the small boats that skimmed along.
Going out for a walk along the sand, they muffled up with fleeces and woolly hats and scarves as they braved the chill winds and cold and enjoyed the bracing sea air. They walked for miles.
‘Joy, thanks for being such a good friend, especially since the whole thing with Liam.’
‘Any contact with him over Christmas?’
‘Not a word. Though he made the kids have dinner with him and Elaine on St Stephen’s Day.’
‘Awkward?’
‘He is their dad, and they have to get over this and keep their relationship with him, and, I suppose, maybe build one with Elaine – whether I like it or not.’
‘Men are so bloody odd!’
‘Talking about men, what about Fergus? What’s happening between you? How come you’re down here on the beach with me instead of celebrating the New Year with him?’
‘Fergus is great. Honest, he’s a good man, probably one of the most decent that I’ve met. But he’s gone to Brussels for Christmas. His daughter and her husband live there, and he’s spending the holidays with them. They just had a baby boy, so he was dying to see his new grandson. He’ll be back next week, and we’ll get together then. Just because he’s divorced doesn’t mean he hasn’t family commitments. It’s good to see that he’s close to his kids and is on pretty good terms with his ex-wife, which is kind of freaky.’
‘Well, I’m dying to meet the guy who has put a sparkle back in your eyes,’ teased Alice, the wind catching her as they walked a further few miles.
Over the next few days there were late breakfasts-cum-brunches and simple, uncomplicated meals.
‘No one is wasting their time cooking!’ warned Joy. ‘You’ll be sick of it when you’re trying to teach your new students how to cook.’
‘I’m nervous about it,’ Alice admitted, ‘but I’m also excited! Teaching a group of strangers how to cook is a bit of a challenge, but if I can pass on my love of food and making it and creating dishes, I guess I’ll be happy! I can’t believe that already I have nine people signed up. I just need one more to have my ten.’