Catherine Fulvio - Keeping it Simple

Catherine Fulvio chats to Niamh O’Reilly about her passion for food plans, embracing her airfryer and why despite her grá for Italian food, she’ll never stop championing great Irish produce. 

Catherine Fulvio is busy by nature. With ideas constantly on the boil, she never wastes a moment and as we chat, I discover she’s using an under-desk treadmill to get her steps in. “My children are crying laughing at me for this purchase,” she giggles. “I do prefer fresh air or walking in the forest, but this works, even though I’m hanging onto the keyboard as the legs are going underneath me, it’s hilarious.”      

As a chef, business owner, author, TV personality and mum of teenagers it’s not hard to see why the bubbly Wicklow woman goes a mile-a-minute. She doesn’t rest on her laurels and the naturally warm, chatty chef really struggled with the sudden pausing of life at Ballyknocken Country House and Cookery School during the pandemic.

“The first few days [of lockdown] I thought this was great, I’ve nothing to do I’ll put my feet up, but after two weeks I was so lost,” she admits. “Actually, I was really, very lost. And I spent two years being quite lost. That lack of personal contact with people really affected me here because it’s what I’ve known all my life.” Catherine is the third generation living at Ballyknocken House and it was her mother, who 50 years ago began taking in guests and offering B&B, so that convivial nature and a real love of talking to people is imprinted on her DNA.

“I was born into serving breakfast to guests and setting tables and giving them driving directions to Glendalough and all of that from a really young age, so to have that all whipped away from me all those years later was a very lonely place to be.”

Still, if there’s one thing Catherine knows how to do, it’s to keep busy and she used the time during the pandemic to launch an online cookery school and get an Advanced Diploma in Health and Nutrition, which has given her a completely new outlook on her food and an even deeper love of Irish produce.

“The food in Ireland is really good because we have exceptional raw ingredients,” she says. As someone who regularly welcomes visitors from overseas to Ballyknocken, Catherine is better placed than most to see how her American guests, in particular, view Irish food.

“Often tourists arrive with low expectations. They come expecting corned beef and cabbage, but Irish people are foodies and that’s why it’s so frustrating,” she explains. “You think to yourself, we’re so much more than that, we love our food, we love experimenting.” Despite some stereotypes however, Catherine insists they all leave with a very different view. “They are always blown away by the standard of food in Ireland. The US guests are so surprised that all our beef is grass-fed, because over there you pay a premium for that and they can’t get over our dairy, our seafood, the fresh veg. I think our reputation for food is growing.”

local sourcing

Catherine is passionate about Irish food, and you can hear it in her voice the moment she gets the chance to talk about it. She’s like a bright firework fizzing with excitement at the thoughts of putting dishes together. However, with her Italian connections so strong thanks to her husband Claudio, which country’s cuisine would she choose when the chips are down? “You’re asking me to choose my favourite child,” she laughs. “Do you know, I’ve always loved Italian food, but thinking about sustainability, thinking about eating locally, thinking about our health, it’s more important for me to eat and enjoy Irish ingredients, and to know that they haven’t travelled far and to know that I’m supporting a local community,” she says. “It gives me a great sense of pleasure when I do eat my food and we might be growing simpler ingredients, but there’s so much we do with them.”

Keeping it simple is a mantra she embraces especially when it comes to eating more healthily, something that’s more of a challenge when social media is packed with content focusing on cutting out food groups or following fad diets.

“I think we’re being led by influencers based on how they look, rather than their educational content and we might be going down the wrong track. It’s nice to see people who look well, but I think it’s more important to understand what is good for us, because everyone’s body is individual,” she say.

“There’s no point in me looking at someone on social media who’s say 6ft and slim and models on catwalks and think well if I do a keto diet, for example, I’ll look just like that, even though I’m 5ft 3 and a pear shape,” she says. “I have to see what’s right for me and my age, in my diet and I think a good healthy, balanced diet is simpler than we think.”

If keeping things simple is her mantra, then planning is very much Catherine’s secret weapon. “It sounds terribly boring, like you’re taking the joy out of cooking and fun out of food, but I plan my food, especially with how the economy is going now,” she explains. “We make a food plan for the week, so we know we’re not over-shopping, we’re not wasting food. Last night I made turkey burgers for dinner, but I made extra and today they’ll be warmed up and we’ll have them with a salad for lunch.” 

plan ahead

Catherine’s other big tips for keeping budgets on track this winter are just as simple. Chief among them is to batch cook and to get very friendly with your freezer. Her other tip is to embrace the airfryer. “I resisted getting one because I’ve got so many gadgets and I don’t need another one, but it’s so versatile, especially for smaller portions and quick food and you’re not running up a big electricity bill either.” Her only caveat is that airfryer cooking hinges on having good marinades, spices and sauces packed in there to keep everything moist and flavourful. So, will we see a chapter on her new favourite gadget in her next book? “I’ve a bit of practice to do first,” she howls.

As busy as Catherine likes to be, the pandemic has put things into perspective. “I’ve learned to put time aside for myself, especially over the last few years. Eating healthy is part of my self-care, it’s very important to me and it’s my number one priority.” Catherine is also changing her perceptions on exercise. “Years ago, I would have seen exercise as something only about losing weight, whereas I’ve had to make that switch in my head and look at it as something I love to do,” she explains. “Movement is so good for your overall health, but it’s something social for me too. I go to yoga and to the gym with my best friends and we chat all the way there and all the way home and I go walking with friends and it’s such a great way to catch up and get some fresh air too.”

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