AS THE LADY says herself, her 'heart and soul has been put into it'. The lady in question is Wicklow's very own celebrity chef Catherine Fulvio and the all important 'it' is Ballyknocken House and Cookery School of which she is the proprietor.

Although she is making impressive waves in the food, hospitality and cookery world it strikes me that celebrity is something that has sought Catherine out and not the reverse, as here is clearly a woman who loves what she does, regardless of how it is received by others.

Of course it helps that her thriving business has led to numerous awards, including the Good Food Ireland Regional Award for use of Artisan Irish Produce; a monthly column as Image magazine's food writer; two television series and an imminent cookbook, as well as regular appearances on Market Kitchen. None of this would come about however, without Catherine's own passion for food and the industry in general.

Settling down for our interview in Ballyknocken House is a relaxed affair as freshly brewed coffee and homemade cake is presented, just as it is to the many overnight guests received each year at the AA four star approved guesthouse, situated a mile from Glenealy village.

'Whenever our guests arrive they are offered tea and coffee so they feel at home. Irish people appreciate it as it part of our tradition but we find that visitors from abroad are especially surprised and feel very welcome as a result. We are definitely not a hotel, we are a guesthouse and this is our home so hospitality is really important,' she explains.

Ballyknocken House dates back to the 1850s and Catherine is the third generation of the Byrne Family to take the helm. In 1968, Catherine's parents took over the guesthouse and farming business with her mother Mary organising popular walking tour holidays and selling home produce at the Kilcoole Country Market, while instilling her passion for food into Catherine and her siblings.

'We grew up here and all had our chores. We made beds, made butter and yoghurt, helped on the farm and with the guests we were completely immersed in the business from a young age. To this day there is not one of us who is not interested in food and doesn't know how to cook.'

Like many young adults once school was over Catherine couldn't wait for a new challenge and studied German and Irish in UCD during which she spent a year in Bavaria working in a boarding school, where she did everything from teaching English to helping the cook.

From there she moved into PR and returned to nearby Tinakilly House to work in the marketing department.

'From the start I was always organising food events and promoting food so it was obvious where my passion was. The head chef and I had a similar understanding and worked well together here. I was always helping mum with the business as well doing brochures or cooking the evening meals as we had an awful lot in common.'

When Mary sadly passed away in 1996, it was left to the Byrne Family to decide who would take charge of the business and Catherine was nominated. Though she had well learned the hospitality trade and the ways of Ballyknocken from her mother, Catherine felt she needed a confidence boost which would assist her in stepping into Mary's shoes and promptly completed an intensive three-month course at the renowned Ballymaloe Cookery School run by Darina Allen.

'I chose Ballymaloe as I felt I had a lot in common with Darina and that we were singing from the same songsheet so I felt she could educate me more in that area. I have always admired her and wanted to learn from the best. It covered everything from appreciation of wine to using seasonal produce and was very worthwhile. It was a great comfort to realise just how much my own mother had taught me and reinforced my appreciation of that.'

A year later Catherine had found her own rhythm at Ballyknocken House and a largescale refurbishment saw the house gutted on the inside and redecorated in an elegant and sympathetic style, which included the installation of antique Victorian baths in five of its seven ensuite guest rooms.

With a steady flow of guests, Catherine soon found herself often passing on recipes to customers and even showing them how she created certain dishes at times.

'It was something I found myself really enjoying so we decided to convert the old milking parlour built by my grandfather which had become redundant due to diversification in the farming business to a cookery school.' The school sits adjacent to the guesthouse and is bordered by a fresh herb garden, none of which goes to waste thanks to year-round cookery courses and day workshops that can accommodate up to 20 students at a time.

As I steal Catherine away from a mountain of work, her diligent staff are busy preparing for a full house of Valentine's couples who will participate in a specially designed dinner cookery lesson and enjoy the fruits of their labour afterwards.

With an increasing demand for interesting and diverse cookery classes, the ethos at Ballyknocken Cookery School is to provide courses which will see participants continue to use the recipes once they go home.

Fans of Catherine's cooking will be aware of her talent for Italian and Sicilian cooking which she has been honing for more than a decade following her marriage to Claudio. The couple met on Claudio's first day in Ireland when his work as a management accountant brought him to Dublin.

'We bumped into each other and that was it,' says Catherine. And ever since the couple along with their children Charlotte (7) and Rowen (6) have spent as much time in Sicily as their schedules will allow.

Aptly, Catherine's debut television series was named 'Catherine's Italian Kitchen' and saw her recreate some of her favourite recipes in the beautiful Italian sunshine which had viewers hooked, as much for the travel element, as the food. High ratings ensured that a second series was commissioned to start filming in April to cover the region of Rome which Catherine is currently researching. A cookery book to accompany both series will be published in September which she is very excited about.

'It takes a lot more work to do the book than the series but it is worth it. I loved putting it together. It's difficult to decide on what recipes to use and what the public will like. I don't want to be too basic or too complicated and like in the cookery school want people to be able to recreate them.'

Now that her television career has taken off, Catherine's schedule is more packed than ever but she takes it all in her stride with a very bright looking future.

'What I love is that no day is the same. I could be making dinner for guests, teaching students or doing the school run from day to day. We go to Sicily to Claudio's family as much as we can but we are just as happy going to the cinema in Arklow. I always imagined I would be back in Ballyknocken and working in hospitality but didn't expect the rest. After all, it's what I grew up on.'