‘I’m still dabbling in the sheep,” chef Catherine Fulvio says, laughing, as we settle in for our first chat in several years.
“I have 14 gorgeous girls. The breed is called ‘Easycare’, but I’d say they’re anything but easy to care for. The thing is, you don’t need to shear them – they moult, they lose their own wool. At the moment they’re halfway through.
Some of them are missing their top half while others are missing their rear ends. They’re rough looking, currently, but they’re my lovely girls!”
You know that old saying, “Never meet your heroes”? This doesn’t apply to Catherine. In fact, she is one Irish food celebrity absolutely everyone should meet.
Every time we speak, I walk away feeling like I’ve just had an overdue catch up with a good friend. I am sure this is not an anomaly, and that she is genuinely this kind and considerate with everyone she meets.
Speaking from her home base, Ballyknocken House, which is located near Ashford, Co Wicklow, Catherine is bursting with enthusiasm about the summer season ahead. Ballyknocken offers a variety of accommodation options (including a self-catering apartment in the farm’s old milking parlour and a fully renovated, four-bedroom farm cottage) and cookery classes at her award-winning Ballyknocken Cookery School.
With these businesses at her fingertips, she caters to visitors from Ireland and abroad, but also offers bespoke weddings, hen weekends, corporate team building events and online classes. She is much more than the smiling face we know from television and her cookbooks – at Ballyknocken, she is building on her family legacy. This is where her mother started the business as a bed and breakfast in 1969, and where Catherine raised her two children, Rowan and Charlotte.
“Charlotte is now a fitness trainer and a pilates instructor,” she says. “We’ve been doing a few collabs together. We call it ‘Stretch and Scones’ – our guests do pilates with her, and then they join me in the kitchen to make some scones. It’s been so great, she is adding a bit of youthful energy to the business but we’re still very much bringing in that food element.”
Changing with the times doesn’t bother Catherine. She knows – as does any long-term hospitality business owner – if you can’t accommodate changing consumer demand, your business simply won’t survive. She also knows that if you want to keep the family business running, you need to play to your personal strengths. This is what led her to open her cookery school 22 years ago.
Catherine's favourite summer flavours all originate from her garden at Ballyknocken.
“I took over the business and launched the cookery school in 2004,” she explains. “Since then, so much has changed in terms of customer needs and just our general taste in food. Twenty years back, guests were looking for ‘fancy food’ – today, our most popular cookery class is called ‘Seven Nights, Seven Dinners, One Class’. People don’t have time for elaborate meals.
We’ve been fortunate in our business; we have many fingers in many pies. This weekend we might have a hen, next week it could be a corporate group – we’re always changing, but that’s why I love it so much.
“Irish food has changed, as well,” she adds. “I think what’s really changed is the culture around small producers – it’s been really wonderful. Today, there are so many passionate people making a living out of food. I just met someone last week who was growing wasabi.”
Maintaining a hospitality business for as long as Catherine has is a feat, and a testament to the legacy she inherited from her mother. She says, though, that while we often associate legacy with longevity, this isn’t always the case when you work in food and hospitality.
“It’s more about impact,” she says.
“The business could last a year or six months, but it’s the standards you set, the people you meet, the producers you support and the sense of place you create.
“I would encourage my children, if they wanted to take on the business here, that they come back with their own stamp – something that reflects their passion. That’s what I did when I took on Ballyknocken.
“My mother specialised in hill walking, but I was gung-ho about going with a different market. I expect, for family-run food businesses to survive, these types of things have to happen.”
Catherine established the Ballyknocken Cookery School in 2004. / Philip Doyle
Ballymaloe Festival of Food
In a bit of a full-circle moment, Catherine will be a headlining chef at the 2026 Ballymaloe Festival of Food which will take place from 15-17 May. Full circle, because Catherine started out her career in food as a Ballymaloe student more than 25 years ago.
Well-known for her use of home-grown produce and love of vibrant Mediterranean flavours, she is planning to bring a little bit of both to the main stage.
“I am so excited to be cooking at the Ballymaloe Festival of Food,” she says, smiling. “This is such a highlight for me. Charlotte wasn’t even born when I attended Ballymaloe.
I learned from the amazing Darina, Rory and Rachel, and it is such an honour to be invited back to the stage, to bring a little bit of Wicklow to Cork. I’m going to focus on something very unique to us here, but I am also going to bring along a bit of Sicilian flavour.”
Along with her home grown produce, Catherine loves to use local Wicklow produce in her cookery classes and demos. / Philip Doyle
One can assume summer to be Catherine’s favourite season, thanks to the wide range of fresh fruits and vegetables available to her. If you ask what she does in her spare time, she will undoubtedly say she spends it out in Ballyknocken’s expansive garden.
“I have this line I say to all my guests: I just plant and pray. And I really do! I know what I’m doing and I have Mark here, who is amazing in the garden, but a lot of it is ‘plant and pray’ – I don’t have time to go out and mollycoddle the plants.
“But it’s a special time here, the gardens are coming into their own – all the apple trees are in blossom, the rhubarb’s out, the artichokes are doing their thing.
“It’s all about the garden, the fresh produce and what we can bring to the table.”
Unsurprisingly, if you ask Catherine about her favourite summer flavours and ingredients, they are also home-grown.
“It really depends on what’s coming from the garden,” she says. “I love artichokes, or when the figs come out later in the summer. I enjoy making stuffed courgette flowers, we get a lot of courgettes and they are so easy to grow. I love crisp salads, and using dry rubs on fish and veggies before barbecuing them – that is just heaven.
We have some amazing herbs here – a cola plant which actually smells like Coca-Cola, spicy, peppery mint, lemon balm, fennel, tarragon. And using a bit of delicious Wicklow Rapeseed Oil helps marry those flavours.”
In addition to their popular line-up of classes and events, Catherine and the team at Ballyknocken are expanding their offering this summer with more seasonal cooking experiences, including more outdoor dining opportunities and foraging classes. Catherine says these experiences are growing in popularity as more of us aim to tune out and enjoy the peace of the countryside.
If she has any spare time, you'll likely find Catherine pottering around the garden.
“It’s time for us all to slow down,” she says. “The world has gotten frantic and the news is dreadful; it’s hard on us. To be able to stand back and enjoy the process of growing your own, if you can, is so important. Or to shop carefully for great ingredients and take time in the kitchen to reconnect with food in a meaningful way – even just making a little loaf of brown bread. These are the things that can help us slow down and be in the moment.”
See ballyknocken.ie
Read more
A taste of Catherine
Food for thought: we are what we eat
‘I’m still dabbling in the sheep,” chef Catherine Fulvio says, laughing, as we settle in for our first chat in several years.
“I have 14 gorgeous girls. The breed is called ‘Easycare’, but I’d say they’re anything but easy to care for. The thing is, you don’t need to shear them – they moult, they lose their own wool. At the moment they’re halfway through.
Some of them are missing their top half while others are missing their rear ends. They’re rough looking, currently, but they’re my lovely girls!”
You know that old saying, “Never meet your heroes”? This doesn’t apply to Catherine. In fact, she is one Irish food celebrity absolutely everyone should meet.
Every time we speak, I walk away feeling like I’ve just had an overdue catch up with a good friend. I am sure this is not an anomaly, and that she is genuinely this kind and considerate with everyone she meets.
Speaking from her home base, Ballyknocken House, which is located near Ashford, Co Wicklow, Catherine is bursting with enthusiasm about the summer season ahead. Ballyknocken offers a variety of accommodation options (including a self-catering apartment in the farm’s old milking parlour and a fully renovated, four-bedroom farm cottage) and cookery classes at her award-winning Ballyknocken Cookery School.
With these businesses at her fingertips, she caters to visitors from Ireland and abroad, but also offers bespoke weddings, hen weekends, corporate team building events and online classes. She is much more than the smiling face we know from television and her cookbooks – at Ballyknocken, she is building on her family legacy. This is where her mother started the business as a bed and breakfast in 1969, and where Catherine raised her two children, Rowan and Charlotte.
“Charlotte is now a fitness trainer and a pilates instructor,” she says. “We’ve been doing a few collabs together. We call it ‘Stretch and Scones’ – our guests do pilates with her, and then they join me in the kitchen to make some scones. It’s been so great, she is adding a bit of youthful energy to the business but we’re still very much bringing in that food element.”
Changing with the times doesn’t bother Catherine. She knows – as does any long-term hospitality business owner – if you can’t accommodate changing consumer demand, your business simply won’t survive. She also knows that if you want to keep the family business running, you need to play to your personal strengths. This is what led her to open her cookery school 22 years ago.
Catherine's favourite summer flavours all originate from her garden at Ballyknocken.
“I took over the business and launched the cookery school in 2004,” she explains. “Since then, so much has changed in terms of customer needs and just our general taste in food. Twenty years back, guests were looking for ‘fancy food’ – today, our most popular cookery class is called ‘Seven Nights, Seven Dinners, One Class’. People don’t have time for elaborate meals.
We’ve been fortunate in our business; we have many fingers in many pies. This weekend we might have a hen, next week it could be a corporate group – we’re always changing, but that’s why I love it so much.
“Irish food has changed, as well,” she adds. “I think what’s really changed is the culture around small producers – it’s been really wonderful. Today, there are so many passionate people making a living out of food. I just met someone last week who was growing wasabi.”
Maintaining a hospitality business for as long as Catherine has is a feat, and a testament to the legacy she inherited from her mother. She says, though, that while we often associate legacy with longevity, this isn’t always the case when you work in food and hospitality.
“It’s more about impact,” she says.
“The business could last a year or six months, but it’s the standards you set, the people you meet, the producers you support and the sense of place you create.
“I would encourage my children, if they wanted to take on the business here, that they come back with their own stamp – something that reflects their passion. That’s what I did when I took on Ballyknocken.
“My mother specialised in hill walking, but I was gung-ho about going with a different market. I expect, for family-run food businesses to survive, these types of things have to happen.”
Catherine established the Ballyknocken Cookery School in 2004. / Philip Doyle
Ballymaloe Festival of Food
In a bit of a full-circle moment, Catherine will be a headlining chef at the 2026 Ballymaloe Festival of Food which will take place from 15-17 May. Full circle, because Catherine started out her career in food as a Ballymaloe student more than 25 years ago.
Well-known for her use of home-grown produce and love of vibrant Mediterranean flavours, she is planning to bring a little bit of both to the main stage.
“I am so excited to be cooking at the Ballymaloe Festival of Food,” she says, smiling. “This is such a highlight for me. Charlotte wasn’t even born when I attended Ballymaloe.
I learned from the amazing Darina, Rory and Rachel, and it is such an honour to be invited back to the stage, to bring a little bit of Wicklow to Cork. I’m going to focus on something very unique to us here, but I am also going to bring along a bit of Sicilian flavour.”
Along with her home grown produce, Catherine loves to use local Wicklow produce in her cookery classes and demos. / Philip Doyle
One can assume summer to be Catherine’s favourite season, thanks to the wide range of fresh fruits and vegetables available to her. If you ask what she does in her spare time, she will undoubtedly say she spends it out in Ballyknocken’s expansive garden.
“I have this line I say to all my guests: I just plant and pray. And I really do! I know what I’m doing and I have Mark here, who is amazing in the garden, but a lot of it is ‘plant and pray’ – I don’t have time to go out and mollycoddle the plants.
“But it’s a special time here, the gardens are coming into their own – all the apple trees are in blossom, the rhubarb’s out, the artichokes are doing their thing.
“It’s all about the garden, the fresh produce and what we can bring to the table.”
Unsurprisingly, if you ask Catherine about her favourite summer flavours and ingredients, they are also home-grown.
“It really depends on what’s coming from the garden,” she says. “I love artichokes, or when the figs come out later in the summer. I enjoy making stuffed courgette flowers, we get a lot of courgettes and they are so easy to grow. I love crisp salads, and using dry rubs on fish and veggies before barbecuing them – that is just heaven.
We have some amazing herbs here – a cola plant which actually smells like Coca-Cola, spicy, peppery mint, lemon balm, fennel, tarragon. And using a bit of delicious Wicklow Rapeseed Oil helps marry those flavours.”
In addition to their popular line-up of classes and events, Catherine and the team at Ballyknocken are expanding their offering this summer with more seasonal cooking experiences, including more outdoor dining opportunities and foraging classes. Catherine says these experiences are growing in popularity as more of us aim to tune out and enjoy the peace of the countryside.
If she has any spare time, you'll likely find Catherine pottering around the garden.
“It’s time for us all to slow down,” she says. “The world has gotten frantic and the news is dreadful; it’s hard on us. To be able to stand back and enjoy the process of growing your own, if you can, is so important. Or to shop carefully for great ingredients and take time in the kitchen to reconnect with food in a meaningful way – even just making a little loaf of brown bread. These are the things that can help us slow down and be in the moment.”
See ballyknocken.ie
Read more
A taste of Catherine
Food for thought: we are what we eat
![George Lamb: ‘we have to find the sweet spot [in agriculture]’](https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/ifj/WEBFILES/000/867/584/2372033-867584.jpg)
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