AWARDS

2010 Bridgestone Guide

"Sarah Gornall is someone who not only espouses perfection, but somehow makes perfection look easy."
That's how the Irish Examiner's Mary Leland summed up Sarah Gornall's modus operandi in this achingly beautiful 19th-century rectory. Ms Gornall has trained as chef, gardener and interior designer and it's as if all of her education has been designed to head her to create this impeccably beautiful house.

She is one of those rare Irish people who really understands the feng shui of having the right object in the right place in order to create the right aesthetic. It all adds up to a wonderful new arrival.

Note, if you want Sarah to cook dinner - and you should "It's all out of the garden and I love doing it," she says - then give her a little advance notice.

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Irish Times - April 24th 2010 - View Full Story

In a perfect world, before you opened a country house you would train as a chef, an interior designer and a gardener. Sarah Gornall has trained in all these disciplines, and it explains why Kilcolman Rectory is such a dream country destination, hidden away a few kilometres west of Bandon.

You could bury yourself in the gorgeous aesthetic of the house, but then there is fishing with an expert gillie, cookery classes from Gornall and, especially, the chance to locate your inner Winston Churchill by doing a course in watercolour painting with local artist Jenni White. Select some of the garden’s beautiful flowers, set up your easel and the rest is surely easy.

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Sarah Gornall is chef, gardener and designer and achieves all with her sprezzatura nonchalance.

"Sarah Gornall is someone who not only espouses perfection, but somehow makes perfection look easy."
That's how the Irish Examiner's Mary Leland summed up Sarah Gornall's modus operandi in this achingly beautiful 19th-century rectory.

There is a word - a superb Italian word coined by Baldassare Castiglione in his book "the book of the courtier" in 1528 - for what Ms Gornall achieves and the way in which she achieves it: ‘sprezzatura’ The nonchalance that conceals effort.

John & Sally McKenna
Bridgestone
www.bridgestoneguides.com