Saturday with Kathleen Flavin: I’ll do the usual shop but I’ try to shop locally and seasonally

Kathleen Flavin, head chef Foxford

08.00

I’ll get up around 8am and the first thing I’ll do is make a coffee. I like my coffee, so I’ll buy nice coffee everywhere I go and my family and friends buy me coffee as gifts. I’ll take our dog Buddy for a walk in Tourmakeady Woods — a fabulous loop walk with a waterfall about four minutes from my home.

09.30

I’ll usually do the local parkrun or I’ll volunteer at it. It’s amazing that we have this parkrun so near my home because the area has a tiny population of around 1,000 or 1,200 people at any given time.

I’ll usually walk or run it or be involved as a volunteer. My kids are into running and athletics, so that got me into it but I also like the fact that it gets me out and gives structure to Saturday morning.

Kathleen Flavin, head chef Foxford

10.30

A few of us will go for a coffee at the local coffee van, Caife Glas.

11.00

I’ll head home and have some breakfast. I don’t overthink it — it’ll be granola or poached eggs.

11.45

My kids are involved in a local swimming club, so I will drop them off and then head off to do the shopping.

13.00

I’ll do the usual supermarket shop that everyone does, but I’ll try to shop as locally and as seasonally as possible. We are lucky that my mother, who lives next door, is a fabulous gardener and grower, so we get fresh vegetables from her throughout the year.

I’ve a couple of apple trees which are great at this time of year and I always try to get to the local butcher. I’m lucky too that I have access to all the lovely jams and chutneys on the Foxford shelves.

If I wasn’t at home on a Saturday I’d be anywhere that has an amazing food market. I was recently in Madeira with my sisters and visited the most incredible food market.

15.00

I’ll collect the teenagers and then drive back to the house where we’ll start thinking about preparing dinner. At this time of year, we’ll probably have a curry or beef tacos.

18.00

If I have people coming over for dinner, I’ll marinate a piece of meat or fish and grill it and have lots of seasonal salads on the table so people can help themselves, have a glass or two of wine and a chat. I have four sisters and two brothers, so when people come to visit, it tends to be a big gathering.

Everything in the new book is designed to be simple and seasonal.

A lot of the recipes are made from one seasonal ingredient – say, beetroot, that is really beautiful at a particular time of year. For autumn and winter, there are a lot of lovely recipes for soups and then there are recipes for things like power balls that you can keep in the freezer and have with a cup of coffee or tea.

The salads in the book are the most asked for things in the Foxford Cafe. You can make a full meal of a frittata, salads and a nice bread or make aspects of it – everything in the book has been on the menu in some form or other. Everything is tried and tested and the whole concept is that you’re bringing a taste of the Foxford Cafe home. I was diagnosed with coeliac disease just five years ago which has probably influenced my recipes a bit, but I always had a lot of coeliac-friendly recipes on the menu at Foxford – from fish cakes to sweet treats.

20.00

In general, as the week has been so busy, we tend to stay at home on a Saturday night. If we were going out we might go to Bar One in Castlebar or to Kenny’s Bar in Ballintubber.

We are board game geeks, so we might play a board game after dinner – usually Catan or Ticket to Ride.

22.00

Everyone will head to their separate quarters to watch their own thing as we all have different tastes. People always ask me if I watch food shows on television, but I don’t. I don’t need to be watching Masterchef after a week in the kitchen.

23.00

I enjoy reading and will read anything and everything. I recently re-read the entire Harry Potter series as well as No One Saw a Thing by Andrea Mara and The Perfect Lie by Jo Spain.

Kathleen Flavin has been head chef at the Foxford Cafe since 2010. She trained as a chef in GMIT Galway and has spent over 25 years working in commercial kitchens, from five-star hotels to fine dining restaurants. Her first book FOXFORD Cafe Cookbook is available in all good bookshops and from foxford.com, €24.95