‘I think food became people’s focus because it was joy’

to ourselves and creating something nice. It could be healthy, a sweet treat, something to share with our families while being indoors.

‘People were engaging with their children and getting them to cook along with them. So it gave us a sense of purpose and joy and I think that’s why cooking became so popular during lockdown. That and necessity — don’t forget, we couldn’t eat out.’

While we were obsessing about our sourdough, in Germany the home bakers were fussing over a rather more Irish creation.

‘The craze in Germany during lockdown was making Irish soda bread,’ says Catherine. ‘They couldn’t get enough of it because for them, making soda bread was exotic. We were all pushing outside our comfort zones.

‘In Sweden there are sourdough starter hotels — like where you can leave your pet when you go on holidays but only for sourdough starters,’ she says, laughing. ‘So if anyone is looking for a business idea, there’s one. Imagine the responsibility and the stress of looking after everyone’s sourdough starter!

‘Sourdough was new to us and people wanted to try and make restaurant-standard food at home.

‘We had the time to do it and sourdough was perfect as it takes a while to make. It was giving people a break during the day when they were working from home. It was perfect for lockdown because you had a reason to leave your desk.’

Like the Germans, we were, Catherine noticed, trying to cook meals from all over the world.

‘I did notice people were being creative with what they were making,’ she says. ‘Where they might previously have gone out for a Mexican dish, they were starting to try things themselves. During lockdown that gave people a challenge as well and it broke up the humdum routine of being at home and working from home.’

For Catherine though, cooking as a job stopped at the beginning of the pandemic and she is only now up and running again at her cookery school in Ballyknocken.

‘There was the initial shock of my business shutting down and we found a way of re-energising ourselves and we are back up and running now,’ she says. ‘We are open, people are coming for cookery classes and staying over. So we are excited about that.

‘I started doing a lot of online lessons and virtual tutoring, live cookalongs and I started using

Instagram a lot more, putting things up on IGTV.

‘So it has been very positive in that sense, learning new skills and ways of doing business. I feel very positive moving forward but it was an anxious time initially. Our primary business would be people coming in from abroad and that was tough in that sense.

‘Everybody was waiting — it was a waiting game. Obviously the big groups cancelled very quickly but all the individual guests coming to stay for their summer holidays with us from Germany and the likes had to wait until they knew it was safe to travel or not.

‘We didn’t know what would happen and then when the green list was published everything got cancelled. So it was a little bit of the not knowing that made me most anxious. I am a planner and I like to know what I am doing from day to day and I think I speak on behalf of everyone in Ireland when I say that at this point none of us knows what we are doing from day to day any more. It does cause a bit of anxiety for people.’

But the bookings are coming back as Irish holidaymakers spent the summer staycationing and there are a few more strings to Catherine’s bow now, including a new series of Tastes Like Home which begins on RTÉ One tonight and is sponsored this year by Belling.