Woman with Cootehall connections launching a book at King House

She restored a derelict 18th century farmhouse in France, adapting it as a much recommended cookery school, while along the way training as a tour guide for the Normandy D-Day landing beaches. But always the west of Ireland beckoned.
Dubliner Sinead Wilde Allart who opened her Wilde Kitchen cookery school in Normandy in 2006, always felt the pull of her Roscommon ancestors calling her back to Lough Key.
Now she is returning with a newly published cookbook under her arm. And a plan to restore another historic building which she hopes to call home.
“Wilde about La Blonderie” a tantalising mix of stories and recipes gleaned during a 30 year adventure in the Cotentin peninsula in the north of France, will be launched at King House , Boyle on September 1 .
The Home Economics teacher who trained at St Angela’s college in Sligo, spent many childhood holidays in Cootehall swimming in Oakport lake , boating on Lough Key and cycling the lanes of Roscommon, Leitrim and Sligo.
“So close was the connection that for my 16th birthday my Dublin friends bought me a tee-shirt with ‘I love Cootehall’ on it!” , she recalled.
Growing up in Raheny she never dreamt that she would one day preside over a menagerie of horses, donkeys, chickens, cats, dogs, geese and sheep in Normandy while teaching food lovers from around the globe about the delights of braised beef cheeks with foie gras not to mention rabbit flavoured with mustard and creme fraiche .
“Wilde about la Blonderie” isn’t just a record of her culinary adventures in France - there are recipes there for brown soda bread and treacle cake.
But the compilation of “recipes, anecdotes, tips and tricks” is mostly a love letter to that part of France which for many years has been home to Sinead, her Belgian-born husband Philippe Allart and their two daughters Ellen and Kate.
The many dishes include what Sinead dubs “Normandy on a plate” which is cockerel cooked with cream, calvados, cider, apples and walnuts as well as the ever popular French onion soup and sweet treats such as ganache and raspberry Bavarois.
When the recently qualified home economics teacher and the young Belgian vet met in Tralee in the 1990’s she envisaged a career in the classroom in Ireland and he was planning a move to Australia.
But love blossomed, Normandy was the compromise and they were charmed when they found the abandoned La Blonderie with its orchards, derelict boulangerie or bakehouse built in 1789, and stone cut sheds which they eventually renovated for guests.
“This book is a way of preserving the memories by sharing recipes taught at the Wilde kitchen,” explained Sinead who loved introducing her students to the local food markets, cider farms and artisan food stores.
“We met people from all over - proximity to the landing beaches meant that we had guests from the United States, Australia, Canada, the UK, Ireland, Singapore, Hong Kong, Mexico, Holland, and Belgium,” she explained.
The seed for the cookbook was sewn when an Australian on a six-day course in 2011, turned out to be a journalist compiling the best five cookery schools she could recommended to readers of Quantas magazine.
She included the Wilde Kitchen and suggested a cookbook as a natural progression. When a dear friend in Roscommon told Sinead ‘don’t wake up at 75 and not have written that cookbook” she seized the opportunity provided by the Covid pandemic.
“A new chapter in our life is about to begin and I think it’s a lovely way of sharing our adventures - and the most precious recipes from the Wilde Kitchen,” said Sinead.
The new chapter includes the renovation of yet another historic home, this one Ashfield Lodge in Knockvicar which Sinead and Philippe fell in love with after spotting it on a boating trip on Lough Key in 2013.
They recently bought the former RIC barracks, which Philippe refers to as “La Blonderie with a lake”.
The former Home Economics teacher has reason to feel at home in Co Roscommon.
Her maternal grandfather, Brian Fleming taught in Woodfield NS in Crossna parish while her great grandmother, Ellen Mattimoe, a native of Crossna taught in Mount Allen NS. Her great great-grandmother taught in Bridgecartron, also in the parish..
Sinead’s parents spent part of their honeymoon in Knockvicar and her father “a true Dub”, was so charmed by the area that he bought a cottage in Cootehall over 50 years ago.
“We seven children had the best of both worlds - a childhood shared between the city and Cootehall”, said Sinead.
“I recall that feeling of freedom when we’d arrive for the long summer holidays with our bikes in tow. There was only one rule - we had to be home before dark”.
Now she’s back with a record of her many adventures so far .
“Wilde about La Blonderie” is available to buy at Mulvey’s House of Gifts, main street Carrick-on-Shannon and also at the Reading Room, Bridge street, Carrick on Shannon.
Sinead can be contacted at wildekitchen@gmail.com