Catherine Fulvio: I was born to be the person I am. Food is just in the blood

The life lesson I would like to pass on is how to cook.

I'm the third generation here on our family farmhouse in Wicklow. My mother opened a Farmhouse Bed and Breakfast here over 50 years ago so I was born into the business. She called it a bed-and-breakfast, but in fact, she cooked three meals a day for guests. I grew up learning how to cook breakfast, lunch, and dinner for guests who would stay a week. It was quite frantic growing up. I learned an awful lot about farm to fork and natural farm produce, because we were dairy farmers at the time. So we had our own cream and our own milk. At one stage mam had this great idea that we'd make our own butter, which was quite the job as kids turning a churn by hand!

It was a great way to grow up. At the time the guests who stayed were Irish families and there were always loads of kids our own age. So, once we finished our chores, we had a full playground of kids and we used to go mental running around the farm playing all sorts of games, it was just a wonderful, happy childhood.

My earliest memory has to be steaming hot white soda bread with raisins coming straight out of the oven, made by my grandmother. Slices cut while it's still hot and butter slathered into it, and it just melting down into it and that first bite... there's nothing like it. That smell of the bread coming out of the oven, and the salty butter just melting into it. It's divine.

I think I was born in the right place. I absolutely adore where I live, I love the farm, I love that you can see the Irish sea from here and I love the peace and quiet. I also think I was born to be the person I am. Growing up on the farm, the food is just in the blood.

My children, Charlotte and Rowan, are my proudest achievement. They're hardworking, resilient, kind, and thoughtful and I'm so happy to have them in my life. Rowan was just finishing Transition year when Covid struck and taking a leaf out of my mother's book, I put him to good use. He became my cameraman for Instagram. He was well fed though because he got to taste everything we made. I make some shows for TV in the United States, so we did some live shows from my kitchen and he became the cameraman for that too.

Catherine Fulvio's earliest memory is steaming hot white soda bread coming out of the oven,

I'd like to be remembered as being a great mother. That's the most important thing to me. When they're so young, they're so dependent on you and as the years go on, you want them to look back and always hold you in high regard. And as your children grow older, you want them to always have respect for you, as a mother, and look back very fondly on the experiences that you gave them in their life.

I think my greatest quality is that I very much enjoy the banter. I love a bit of fun and a laugh and I like to make everyone feel comfortable, especially here in the cookery school. Some people walk in with a little bit of trepidation, but they're only in the door a minute and we're having a good laugh.

The person I used to always turn to was my dad. He passed away last year and it’s left an awful gap for me. He was always my rock. My mother died over 20 years ago, I was lucky to have my dad. He was with me into his 80s. He was my confidant, my best friend. I miss him terribly. I find it difficult to accept [he’s gone] because we’ve been living almost in a bubble for the last 18 months or so — it's almost like the last year and a half didn't happen, I am still almost expecting him to walk in the door.

The life lesson I would like to pass on is how to cook. How to understand good quality ingredients; how to support your local community by using those ingredients.

The thing that surprises me is littering. I don't understand how people think it's okay to drive along country roads and roll down the window and throw their chipper contents onto the road. I don't understand how people could go to the beach and just leave their rubbish behind. I just don't get it.

I am scared of climate change. I am scared of the big changes in the weather, I'm worried for our planet. And I'd like to see us all do a little bit — as much as we can. There is definitely still lots I can do. I'd love to see a bit more education on what we can do in our home, and how we can improve and make little changes and little tweaks because every little thing adds up to something big.

Chef Catherine Fulvio cooks with butter and cheese from Truly Grass Fed, a premium brand of sustainably-produced Irish dairy products sourced from a co-op of 3,000 family farms located across Ireland. As part of the brand’s partnership with nonprofit Slow Food USA, Catherine recently hosted a free online event on Irish slow living. To watch or learn more about upcoming Slow Food Live events, visit slowfoodusa.org/slow-food-live.