Catherine Fulvio
As her media career becomes ever busier – with trans-Atlantic flights a regular feature – the Wicklow cook and host tells Jess O Sullivan that being able to kick back at home has never been so important
When you see two teenagers standing in their pyjamas at 7.30am with a mug of Barry’s tea waiting on their mammy to come in the door… well, there is nothing better
You could say it all started for Catherine Fulvio back in the early ’80s when two German guests arrived at the door of Ballyknocken House all dressed up in traditional Bavarian clothing in search of accommodation and a hearty meal. Although still a child at the time, Catherine distinctly remembers her mother Mary’s reaction as she took stock of the new arrivals in their lederhosen, both carrying walking sticks. “Of course, my mother hadn’t seen anything like that before in her life. She said: ‘Oh my goodness. What is that man wearing?’” But being the consummate hostess, the guests were offered a warm welcome. For the next part of her story, Catherine adopts a spot-on German accent, honed no doubt from her year spent living in Germany as a student, and the countless guests who have been through the doors of Ballyknocken House and Cookery School since. “The gentleman said: ‘Oh yes, Mrs Byrne. We are here for the walking in the Wicklow Mountains.’ And my mother thought, ‘Walking in the Wicklow Mountains? That’s a great idea.’”
In sharing this memory, Catherine is attempting to do two things at once. Firstly, to pinpoint the moment she feels the seeds were sown of what the old family farm would become today. And secondly to show her mother’s innate entrepreneurial spirit. If Catherine’s success is anything to go by, that seems to be in the genes. “When my mum and dad got married, they converted the farmhouse into a B&B. Bit by bit, she built up the tourism side of things. I remember when we added washing basins into the bedrooms, and then we moved up to en suites, which was very modern. But after the encounter, she very quickly packaged hillwalking holidays based around the Wicklow Way. I actually think she was one of the first in Ireland to do it.” Walking clubs from all over Ireland and tourists from the rest of Europe began to visit and soon the family business was full and full-on. They would arrange for guests to be dropped off at the starting point of the Wicklow Way with a full belly and a picnic, and then they would be picked up at the other end and brought home for a full dinner.
Sadly Catherine’s mother passed away suddenly, aged just 56, leaving behind her husband Charlie and four children. “It was
quite a shock to us all,” says Catherine. “For a good few years afterwards her customers came to stay and pay their respects and to say hello to dad and myself. Some of them wanted to visit her grave, which I have to say, was quite hard for me to take on because I had to take them there. I found that really difficult. But on the positive side, I think she would have been so chuffed to know that they had come to say goodbye. They loved her so much and she certainly left her mark on them. You leave the biggest impression with people who visit through sheer kindness, personality, a warm welcome and being as helpful as you can. That to me is the signature of Irish hospitality.”
Catherine reveals that she never really thought of herself as an entrepreneur in the early days. In fact the notion that that was exactly what she is just kind of crept up on her slowly. “It’s that Irish thing of ‘imposter syndrome’, thinking we’re not worthy. That was me for years. I’d think, ‘Oh no, I’m only self-employed.’ I’d go along to a local enterprise office meeting and they’d start talking about entrepreneurs and I’d be looking around the room at all techy people and I’d think they’re all entrepreneurs and I’m just self-employed. But actually I was the one with all the staff. It’s a mental shift really because when you start seeing yourself more as an entrepreneur you start to think of yourself as a leader. When you start thinking of yourself as a leader then you start moving forward at a slightly faster pace, still unfolding organically, but you begin looking for the right opportunities to develop the business.”
To this day, Catherine welcomes guests from Germany, Austria and Switzerland for hillwalking but being her mother’s daughter, it was never going to stop there. “We’re the fourth generation now at Ballyknocken. Mum was always very forward thinking, but for me it was about taking it to the next level and building something that was sustainable for my family moving forward.”
It certainly is a family affair, as her two teenagers both work in the business part-time. Charlotte (17) will sit her Leaving Cert next year and Rowan (15) has just done his Junior Cert and they go between helping at reception or serving breakfast in the guesthouse, working in the cookery school helping set up for classes, and helping in the vegetable and herb garden.
She assures me with a laugh that “they don’t work every morning, noon and night” but having grown up helping on the farm and in the guesthouse, she is keen that her children also get the same grounding in life as she did. “All I want is that they understand the value of money, hard work and kindness and being able to work alongside people. I think those are very important lessons in life and books don’t teach you that. We’re in a people-focused business here, so even as an employer I can see that emotional intelligence is really important: being able to mind, help and have a laugh with guests, or to encourage them in the cookery school.”
With such a demanding schedule of filming, guest speaking appearances, TV spots, teaching, the list goes on…Catherine also wants her kids to know that if she’s not there, there is a good reason. “I think it’s important that the children also understand the nature of the business, especially as it’s a seven-day business. Not just for them moving forward, but for them to understand me as a person and what I’m doing.” She says that she is never more thankful for that understanding than when she has come off a trans-Atlantic flight, as she did the day before. She was filming an episode of her RTÉ show Tastes Like Home in Newfoundland. “They’re great kids. They knew I was tired and looking forward to coming home. Honestly, when you see two teenagers standing in their pyjamas at 7.30am with a mug of Barry’s tea waiting on their mammy to come in the door… well, there is nothing better. I just couldn’t believe it. I’ve never seen them out of bed at that time except on a school day!” Trans-Atlantic flights could become more frequent for Catherine in the future as she has built quite the following Stateside. In March of this year, she was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award in the Outstanding Culinary Host category for her six-part series, A Taste of Ireland: Ballyknocken Cookery School, which was screened on US channel, Food TV. “It was such a shock because I don’t live in the US and the Emmys are for shows in the US so it’s primarily people living there. I thought it was a typo when I saw it first and then I saw I had about 100 missed calls from America.” Finding herself living the LA dream for a night on the Emmy red carpet was a surreal experience. “I had a beautiful dress designed by Aideen Bodkin and off I rocked to LA. I thought it would be so appropriate to bring Charlotte because it would be something she would never forget. So she was my social media person because I had to give her a job.” At first she thought the red carpet was going to be a challenge but thankfully there was lots of interest in the Irish lady in red. “Really famous people had gone ahead of me like Whoopi Goldberg, but someone ahead of me shouted, ‘I have Catherine Fulvio here who’s come all the way from Ireland,’ so I got interviewed by practically everyone the whole way along.” Though she missed out on the win, the show has been renewed for a second series and should be aired in October. I point out that it will be just in time for the next round of Emmy nominations, but she is as modest as ever.
Catherine’s humility is probably her loveliest quality, but she says that she has had to dig deep to balance that with the drive needed to make it in business and the media. “It’s really hard to step into that room for the first time, whatever you’re doing. Women in particular tend to put ourselves down more and think we don’t deserve to be there. But we do deserve to have a seat at the table. On the other side of that, I think humble is good too. So you certainly want to feel you deserve to be there, but I think how you’re there is important as well.” She recalls the most nerve-racking moment of her career, which she says was like having her own Sliding Doors moment, the 1998 movie starring Gwyneth Paltrow which showed how one small event can change the course of a life. “I’ll never forget when I was called for a screen test for RTÉ. I was so nervous you wouldn’t believe it. I can’t tell you if I was shaking on the outside but I was like a leaf on the inside because other than breakfast television, I’d never done anything like that before. I’d no training in it, but it worked out well and on the back of that I ended up going to Sicily with RTÉ Cork. Honestly, I couldn’t have predicted how it worked out. You never know what you’ve missed, but you have so many opportunities and if you’re in the right place and the right time, then you just have to go for it. I could easily have caved in and not kept going through it, because part of me was thinking ‘Just walk away now. You’re making a show of yourself.’”
Thankfully she did keep going, and although now her TV work brings her to every corner of the globe, she always has Ballyknocken to come home to. She finds it funny to think back to when she couldn’t wait to get up to the Big Smoke after finishing her Leaving Cert. “If you’d have asked me when I was 16 when I did my Leaving Cert? I couldn’t wait to get out of here. I was like ‘I am going to Dublin and I am going to party.’ My poor older brother had to commute up to Dublin on the Wicklow bus, when there wasn’t even a motorway then. Me? I somehow managed to wrangle being allowed to stay in an apartment with my best friend. Imagine, in UCD at 16 in a flat up in Dublin. But I was a very good girl.” She laughs when I tell her I imagine her like something out of Edna O Brien’s Country Girls. “Ah I worked in Dublin for a good few years, and lived in Germany, but I couldn’t wait to get back home. I think home is where you feel most grounded, where you feel ‘this is where I belong’. I’m grounded here and I’m comfortable in my own skin right here. Home doesn’t have to be a place, even though for me it happens to be here in Ballyknocken. Not just because I’m the third generation here and it’s so scenic, but more importantly, because I’m surrounded by loving people. It’s because the love is here.”