Fulvio: "Running your own business can be a lonely place"

Catherine Fulvio wears many hats – cook, broadcaster, writer, businesswoman – but there are times when being the boss can be a lonely pursuit. Donal O'Donoghue stops by for a chat.

"I’m ready for some sheep action now," says Catherine Fulvio, before zipping up her jacket and striding out onto her farm. I scoff my scone, baked earlier by the cook, and follow my host out into a field of sheep.

We’re at Ballyknocken Cookery School, House and Farm, where under mist-shrouded Carrick Mountain, Fulvio is trying to avoid stepping into sheep droppings while simultaneously coaxing her furry friends into a photograph.

Later – photos done, sheep fed, crew gone – we sit by the fireside for a chat. "More tea and scones?" says herself. "It would be rude not to," says I.

Ballyknocken, the old family home, is her business HQ, complete with cookery school and visitor accommodation. Catherine lives nearby with her husband, Claudio. Their two children, Charlotte (22) and Rowan (21) are currently based in Dublin, while Catherine’s sister, Eithne (she’s one of four siblings) is just down the road. The Victorian farmhouse has been in the family for generations and while her parents, Mary and Charlie, are gone, it is alive with memories.

Her new TV show, a picture postcard tour of Armagh and Down in which Catherine samples local wasabi and a bit of forest bathing, also stirred the past.

"I thought of Mum a lot, walking St Patrick’s Way," she says of her mother who died at the age of 56 in 1998. "It brought it back to me, full circle, those early years in Ballyknocken when Mum was so innovative, organising packaged hiking holidays for tourists when so few other people were doing it. And every time I go to see the sheep, I think of Dad (Charlie Byrne died while working on the farm in 2020).

"I would not be doing sheep farming, only because of dad. But those are my sheep now and I love them to bits. I have just 15 and every time they come to me, I remember Dad and the memories flood back – not just my Dad but my grandfather too. If I close my eyes, I can see the shadow of my granddad in the farmyard. And I still talk with my dad and my mum; they are very much part of my life and what I do here."

'Cats’, as her father used to call her, was just 16 when she started in college, studying German and French at UCD. It was her first time away from home. "I said to Mum, ‘I’m staying up here’. Maybe I just wanted that independence. It was a bit insular at home and I had a lot to learn of life. In many ways, those years were the making of me.

"Of course, nowadays I worry about Charlotte and Rowan, how they are doing and if they are OK. In those moments, I wonder did my mam worry like that about me too. But I was so green back then. In our flat in Dublin, we had that old telephone where you had to go through an operator to make a call. I didn’t know that the first time, thinking I was onto Mammy when this person, with a snippy voice, cut across me saying [mimics snippiness], ‘This is your operator!’"

"Every morning, I had to bring the kids to mass and at one point one of the nuns thought I might join them! Now, I had tried to get out of going to mass long before I went to Germany, but Mammy was having none of it. But when I arrived home, the first thing I said to Mum at Dublin airport was: ‘I’m not going to mass any more!’ She was so delighted to see me she just said, ‘That’s fine’."

Was she always a strong-willed person? "I guess I am," she says. "I’m not competitive but I don’t want to fail. For example, I’m not very good at competitive sports but if I want to do something, I’ll get it done. I’m industrious. That’s just the way I was brought up. I find it hard to sit still. Of course, I sit and watch TV like anyone else, but my mind is always racing about what I should or could be doing. I’ve done yoga and meditation and the rest, but very often in those quiet moments I’m just thinking about what needs to be done. I suppose that helps get me from A to B."

In getting from A to B, Catherine continues to push the potential of her business: with a newly renovated cottage, cookery classes (in person and online), catering for hen parties and all other kinds of parties, and now hosting small weddings.

But as much as she loves the buzz and bustle of hospitality, there is a downside to being the boss. "Sometimes running your own business can be a lonely place," she says. Perhaps that’s one reason she still has quiet chats in her head with her mother when considering new ventures. "You’re the leader, creator and employer, always trying to be one step ahead. Yes, I have a great team, but the big decisions rest with me and in that way you’re on your own."

Does that get easier? "No, it doesn’t. Of course, the fact that the buck stops with you can also be a positive thing, unlike being part of a big corporation where you are answerable to others. If you make a mistake, it’s not the end of the world usually. But I can be hard on myself, with high expectations. I feel that what I’ve created here in Ballyknocken is a reflection on me."

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Next January 1, Catherine turns 56, the age her mother was when she died. If it weighs on her, she doesn’t say. "I’m the worst for going to the doctor. My leg would have to be falling off before I’d visit. I just push through and figure all will be OK."

I tell her she looks fab, glowing with health. "I’m trying very hard", she says. "In the summer, when it gets very busy, which I love because then I don’t have time to think, my diet is very unhealthy. I’m grabbing food on the go. Last autumn, I realised that something had to change so I got into batch cooking. You should see my freezer now! I have my bean soups and curries and the rest, healthy food, portioned out. Now there is something healthy to eat when I don’t have time to cook from scratch and that has made all the difference."

She still hikes as much as possible. "It’s also great for your mental health," she says. Does she worry or carry anxiety? "In the wintertime, the stillness up here and the quiet after a busy summer can get to you a bit," she says. "There’s the excitement of Christmas, which I adore, but the time after that you must make sure to get out and about. I’ve started playing pickle ball and I love comedy shows too. I love Foil, Arms & Hog, who I saw at the end of last year."

She needs these diversions from the ever-present thoughts of keeping the show on the road. "You’re always aware of the bottom line, like anyone who runs their own business, and you’re at the mercy of so many factors. You’re always watching world events, not that you can do anything about that, but as the saying goes, it’s all about ‘bums on beds’."

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I imagine the EasyCare sheep are one of the few easy-going things about businesswoman Catherine Fulvio, someone who has no thoughts on easing back on the throttle. Two weeks after we met, she was heading off to the Netherlands to film a new cookery show for Viking TV, a network affiliated to Viking Cruises, and in January, there was a holiday to southern California where she investigated a potential new idea for her business (I’m sworn to secrecy).

"I enjoy it too much," she says of all the plate-spinning. "As I get older, I worry that my energy levels might lessen but for now, it’s what gets me out of bed."

Her children are also on board. Rowan, who is studying Business and Law at TUD, helps with Catherine’s social media and Charlotte, who is a personal trainer, gives her mum some fitness and healthy lifestyle advice.

A the centre of it all is the host with most who wraps me up a scone – with some homemade rhubarb jam – for the road back to Dublin, because you never know.

Catherine Fulvio's St. Patrick's Way airs Thursday 13 and Friday 14 March on RTE One at 8pm.