Peter and Sarah Baker started Cloughjordan cookery school back in 2010. What started out as a family kitchen has now been transformed into a state-of-the-art kitchen capable of catering for the 2,000 students that book on an annual basis. The cookery school is run by Sarah and is open to all.

Prior to this start-up, they operated a 150-cow dairy farm up until 2004. However, the decision was made to opt out of this industry. This allowed Sarah to pursue her passion – cooking. Having trained in Ballymaloe, it was always her lifelong ambition to start up a cookery school.

The Bakers keep pigs, hens, sheep and horses on the farm.

“It allows the kids to interact with the animals and learn where their food comes from,” says Sarah. “The complete experience in one day.”

The cookery school is particularly well established among secondary schools throughout the country, offering a fully comprehensive “field to fork” experience.

“They first go out to the walled gardens to pick the fruit and veg that they will use. Then they bring the food inside to prepare the dishes. Afterwards, they bring all the scraps outside to the pigs. It’s a really enjoyable experience for all.”

Not only do the Bakers run a successful cookery school, they also cater for many other types of events.

“We also cater for weddings and this year we have 15 weddings booked in so far.”

Cloughjordan house required significant capital investment.

“We were very proactive in looking for support. LEADER contributed significantly to the funding of the business. We have and continue to identify what help is out there. We are very controlled in the cost side of things. We try to source and secure the best deals that we can get.”

Peter and Sarah are active members of the Tipperary food producers group. They currently have 2,500 twitter followers and as many facebook likes.

“Social media plays a big part in promoting our business. It allows small companies to have as big an opportunity to sell their brand online as the larger competitors.”

In recent times, the Bakers have teamed up with Glenisk.

“We run a competition every month in association with Glenisk. In return, they promote our business on the sides of many of their products,” Peter explained.

Aims for the future

“It’s really important to have a business plan in place,” Sarah explained.

“In the short-term, expanding our cookery school is our main focus. Our long-term goals would be to increase the number of secondary school students to 3,000 by 2015, develop our name and brand, and increase the number of facebook and twitter followers.” CL