Catherine Fulvio, a working mother with two small children, runs Ballyknocken House, which is Farmhouse of the Year 2004 in Georgina Campbell's Jameson Guide and is located near Ashford in Co Wicklow.
A graduate of Alix Gardner's and Ballymaloe's professional cookery schools, Fulvio has just opened her own venture, Ballyknocken Cookery School, in what was once the farm's milk-shed. "We used to have dairy cattle, until about 15 years ago. When we stopped, our milking parlour became redundant. Since I always wanted to open a cookery school, it seemed the logical place. So we converted it and now we have a loft apartment above it to accommodate the cookery school guests." Brought up on a 350-acre farm, Fulvio has traded her days spent milking cows or chasing sheep for the practicalities of farmhouse hospitality. But it's still a family business, with her father Charlie working the 700 head of sheep fulltime, and her sister Eithne helping out part-time.
Fulvio's enthusiasm is reflected in her cookery courses - quirky, imaginative offerings that cater for all the family, embryonic cooks and kitchen day-trippers alike. The courses include: Gourmet Entertaining - Summer and Winter; Butter, Flour, Sugar and Eggs; Breakfast Fit for a King or Queen; Family Fun - BBQ and Outdoor Dinning; Southern Italian Cooking (she's married to Claudio, a Sicilian from Palermo, who is group financial controller with the sausage manufacturers Olhausens); Party Food, and For Men Only.
Fulvio also runs corporate team-building programmes that promote leadership, organisation and management. In this case, the problem solving activity has a Hell's Kitchen bent that involves the preparation, cooking and eating of a three-course meal. It certainly sounds more appetising than the average workshop's suppose-you-were-faced-with-the-following scenarios.
This isn't some experiment for foodies where the camp commander has been trained by a sherry-carrying three-star Michelin chef with certain David Brent-like tendencies. No. Fulvio is more likely to laugh you to death than raise her voice or intimidate you. It seems an excellent opportunity to tell your boss what you think of his risotto, and that you always knew he was an egg or two short of an omelette.
Fulvio's small seven-room guesthouse has numerous admirers in addition to Georgina Campbell, with listings in the Bridgestone 100 Best Places to Stay in Ireland; four red stars from the AA and inclusion in Ireland's Hot 100 in Food and Wine, May 2003. And she collects international media attention, having featured on Discovery Channel, on Gentse Waterzooi, a Belgian culinary travel programme. She's apparently quite popular in Japan, too, thanks to a Delia Smith-type cook, Mrs Kurihara, who has used some of her recipes on television and in her quarterly magazine.
Ballyknocken House was built as a residence for an English rent collector called Hetherington, who arrived in the Wicklow hills with his family in the 1850s. It is no surprise that in those post-Famine years his presence wasn't welcome. He was murdered and his body dumped close to a local watering hole which, it is said, his ghost still haunts.
Fulvio's family have an association with the property going back to 1910. In 1969, her mother opened one of the first farmhouse bed and breakfasts. When she died in the l999, her daughter stepped into the breach. "I worked in a marketing capacity at Tinakilly House, having trained in marketing and pubic relations. I was there until 1999, and took over here in 2000, having fully remodelled and renovated the property in keeping with the Victorian style. We then re-registered as a guesthouse, in order to get a grading, and to be part of the Irish hotels marketing body.
"My mum had a wonderful reputation for good wholesome food using local ingredients, and I've carried that tradition on. We do take our cooking a step further, but I still believe in the same things Mum did about food. It's local produce - you buy from your local butcher. You know it's Wicklow lamb or Wicklow beef. We get our vegetables in Wicklow town, from the Dominican Convent, a wonderful organic farm."
The guesthouse is uncomplicatedly pretty, and delicately furnished. It has genuine Victorian baths in five of its seven bedrooms, sourced in salvage yards across the country. Fulvio repaired one of them when she was a contestant on Gay Byrne's popular antique restoration slot on The Late Late Show. "It was the year before the infamous chair from Donegal. I found this cast-iron bath in a salvage yard in the middle of the countryside. I was very specifically told to bring it up to the show just as I had found it. We went on live with weeds, soil and grass growing out of it. Unfortunately, under the studio lights, the whole lot started to evaporate. Gay Byrne and I nearly passed out from the fumes." She didn't win, losing out "to a beautiful Victorian dressing table".
Ballyknocken House is a quiet farm, set in the armchair of Carrick forest and mountain, offering contemplation and stunning views of both the valleys and hinterland of Glenealy below, and high mountainous terrain to the back. Fulvio offers a number of holiday packages to walking enthusiasts, including itineraries that follow routes on specially commissioned maps of the Wicklow Way, Laragh and Roundwood. She can design a route to suit your needs, and there's the promise of a packed lunch and a flask of tea.
Ballyknocken House, Glenealy, Ashford, Co Wicklow (0404-44627). Info@thecookeryschool.ie. www.thecookeryschool.ie.