
Editor’s note: Scott was hosted on the trip by Raglan Road and Dunbrody Country House Hotel. Read Raglan Road Trip to Ireland, Part 1, here.
COUNTY WEXFORD, IRELAND — The group — five contestants and five media reps, along with our guide, Aileen Ferguson — had spent the first two days in Ireland in Dublin and then motoring south to this region on Hook Peninsula to Dunbrody Country House, the elegant hotel and cooking school owned and operated by Kevin and Catherine Dundon. The main house is a stately old manor that was once the hunting lodge of an Irish prime minister. (Only prime ministers warrant hunting lodges with 22 bedrooms.)
While the main structure keeps true to its 1800s heritage, Dundon’s Cookery School, located in perhaps an old stable structure, is a modern facility where students are given instructions designed by Dundon and often carried out by his full-time chef de cuisine, Julien Climot.
It was here that the contestants gathered on the morning of the third day to learn what dish they would be assigned to cook for the 10th anniversary dinner at Raglan Road back in Orlando in October.
All five had submitted videos that demonstrated a three course menu. From those submissions, Dundon selected five that would make up the anniversary dinner.
But not quite.