This week, television chef and food writer Catherine Fulvio
What’s your earliest holiday memory?
When I was about six years old we went to Drumshanbo, Co Leitrim to stay with my aunt and uncle. One day there was a local market on the main street and a bull escaped. We ran like the clappers when the bull charge began with my mum pushing a pram with my baby sister in it. We hid in a local shop for a long time afraid to come out. What was your worst holiday? A skiing holiday in Ischgl, Austria. When I was there it wasn’t well known and wasn’t the Ibiza of skiing. I went with a friend of mine from Germany whom I had never gone on holidays with before. This friend turned out to be incredibly grumpy, she whinged all the time and didn’t like snow or ice. Even though I love skiing I couldn’t wait to get home.
What was your best holiday?
My first holiday with my husband Claudio in Italy. We went from the Tuscan to the Lazio region in what was very much a food-based holiday. We wandered in local supermarkets and villages, cooked local sausages on the barbecue. In Florence we even queued for two hours to wait for one particular restaurant to open. We still saw the sites but had lovely meals and it was very romantic.
If budget or work were not a restriction, what would be your dream holiday?
I’d love to spend a full year in Sicily to see the food through the seasons and see the year in its entirety from the first pick of tomatoes to the last stomping of the grapes and the olives’ first press. We have a villa there and when the children were smaller we would spend up to three months there. But I would love to be there for one long go and not worry about coming back.
If you had your pick, who would you bring on holiday with you?
I’d definitely take my family. But someone I admire very much is Georgina Campbell – if you were to bring her, you would never be short of a good place to stay and a good meal.
What’s your favourite place in Ireland?
Without a doubt, Glendalough at 9am on a midweek morning in the middle of winter. At that time it’s the most magical place with the ice fog lifting out of the valley, which leaves behind ice crystals. You feel at one with nature. It’s really beautiful.
Your recommended holiday reading?
I love reading Sue Grafton books. Another book is The Leopardby Giuseppe di Lampedusa. It is set in Sicily in the 1860s following Giuseppe Garibaldi's arrival and focuses on an aristocratic family, showing the change which began in society.
Where will you go to next?
I’m going to Rome soon to research my summer series for RTÉ. Apparently I have to drive a Vespa and I’m a little worried about that. I’ll be going to homes and seeing food through local people’s eyes.
Television chef and food writer Catherine Fulvio is the proprietor of Ballyknocken House and Cookery School, thecookeryschool.ie
* In conversation with Genevieve Carbery