Catherine Fulvio is a rising star in Ireland’s culinary scene. Not only can her three cookbooks be found in shops across the country, but she’s also become a familiar face on Irish TV thanks to programmes like ‘Catherine’s Roman Holiday’ and ‘Catherine’s Family Kitchen’. At the end of the day, though, Fulvio is still the girl who grew up on a farm. She continues to raise sheep at Ballyknocken House in County Wicklow, where she also runs a B&B and cookery school, allowing her to showcase her passion for local Irish ingredients and Italian cooking – which also come together in her latest book, Eat Like An Italian. Here, Fulvio talks about her love of Italian cuisine, her pride for Ballyknocken and exactly what she won’t be putting in her next cookbook.
Italian food plays a big role in your work, from your cookery books to the dinner menus at Ballyknocken House. Were you always interested in Italian cuisine or did that come from your husband, who is Sicilian?
No, I always loved all Italian food. Everything Italian I loved. Then when I met Claudio, I remember the first thing he started talking about was the food of Sicily. I think I actually fell in love with the food first, then him. What in particular do you like about Italy’s cuisine? What I really love is the approach the Italians have to food – that it’s everything in moderation; that it’s a very healthy diet; that it’s abut incorporating fruit and vegetables and nuts and legumes. It’s not just about the meat and two veg. … Then I also love how regional they are about their food and how passionate they are about their local ingredients. That was actually the inspiration for my third book, Eat Like An Italian. The whole idea is that we can eat like an Italian whilst living here in Ireland using our own local ingredients.
Why are you such a champion of local foods?
I would be a champion of local foods because I’m a farmer’s daughter. We can trace our family farming roots to this area back to the 1500s. … My family have been here in Ballyknocken House and Farm since the early 1900s. I’m third generation, my children are fourth generation and we’re still farming. I understand totally about where food comes from; I understand the respect that you need to have for the source of the ingredients; and, I understand how ingredients are produced. But it’s not only because of the lack of distance that it travels. I also think that local food tends to be produced with love.
In addition to highlighting Irish ingredients, Eat Like An Italian contains a lot of personal stories related to the recipes. Why are those included? I think for me it’s important to tell a story with a recipe. It’s important that every recipe has roots, and I think it brings the recipe alive when people read the introduction to it. Then the recipe means more to them and it helps them visualise the memories that this recipe can create.
In between writing books and appearing on TV and radio, you also cook dinner and teach cookery courses at Ballyknocken House. How do you find the time?
Well, it’s really important for me to be here for my guests because my passion is Ballyknocken. … I’m really proud of what we have. I think our location here is amazing. We’ve got the view of the sea from the hills behind and we’ve got the Wicklow Mountains starting behind us. We have the old Victorian farmhouse, the cookery school in the old milking parlour, and our own vegetable and herb gardens. We’re lamb farmers now. We’ve got an awful lot to offer and so for me it’s really important that I’m here as part of that, because people want to meet the owner. It doesn’t matter that I’m on TV; if nobody knew me, they’d still want to meet the owner because the owner has to share their passion about what they have.
What do you enjoy about teaching cookery courses at Ballyknocken?
I love teaching because it gives you a chance to share your knowledge and your passion. You can see people in the class, they come in in the morning and they’re feeling maybe a little tired. And the next thing you see them sitting up and you see an energy that they get from you. … It’s more than just cooking; it’s the communicating with each other; it’s the laugh we’re having; it’s a social occasion. I get a buzz from that myself because I’m having a laugh.
You’re presently working on your next book. What can you tell us about that?
I can’t really tell you anything about that right now because it’s still in the early stages, but it won’t be Italian. It’ll have hints of Italian in it but it’ll be more reflective of what we do here in our cookery school. I can tell you, though, it’s the antithesis of Jamie Oliver’s 15-Minute Meals, because I don’t think everybody wants to cook in 15 minutes. Some people like to kick off their shoes, pour a glass of wine, put on the music and get into the kitchen.
