"I always had a strong passion for food, and for where it comes from,” says cook, physiotherapist and Gaelic footballer Sinéad Delahunty.

Juggling a career in food alongside working part-time as a physio in the HSE and an on-going commitment to Fethard ladies football club, Sinéad published a cookbook – Delalicious – in 2018.

She has since renovated an old cottage into a comfortable home with space for cookery demonstrations and also supplies a network of local cafés with home baking and seasonal, small-batch preserves.

For her, it’s a natural follow on to the way that she was brought up at her family farm in Fethard, Co Tipperary. Her parents – Eamon and Mary – have deep roots in the land and they passed this on to 33-year-old Sinéad and her two brothers, Eoin and Brian.

“Dad’s a beef farmer, but he came from a dairy farm. Mum is a townie but from a farming background. Dad always told stories of his grandmother, my great-grandmother, putting eggs on the train to Dublin to be sold at the markets.

“Our house used to belong to Olivia Hughes, who was one of the founding members of the ICA [Irish Countrywomen’s Association], the Fethard ICA Guild, Country Markets and the Council for the Blind so we inherited her orchard, her raspberries and her glasshouse, which is now in my garden.”

Cooking, baking and jam-making were part of Sinéad’s life growing up, as was the idea that you could make a living through food.

“A grand-aunt of mine, who was widowed young, used to bake for the local restaurants. I didn’t think that it was anything unusual until I went to college,” says Sinéad, who studied physiotherapy at UCD.

That’s when she started to broaden her food knowledge and encounter different flavours.

As someone who loves travelling – a recent trip to Morocco saw her trekking in the Atlas mountains and eating her way through the souks of Marrakech – she can always be counted on to seek out the local food markets and speciality dishes.

“I’m always searching for food,” she laughs. Starting her food blog Delalicious in 2015 seemed like a natural step, but Sinéad had to be encouraged into starting it by her older brother Eoin whose idea it was and who, she says, “wore me down!”

While Sinéad was already working as a physio with the HSE, Delalicious marked the start of her career in food. Later that year, she went on to represent Ireland at the Cono Sur Food Bloggers Competition in Paris.

It also raised her profile, leading to an unexpected email from The Collins Press and a subsequent offer to write a cookbook. That was a busy time for Sinéad, who was living in Dublin and working at Connolly Hospital in Blanchardstown.

“I was playing county football, playing club football and every weekend I wasn’t playing football, I was shooting a cookbook. I didn’t have a budget for stylists or anything so I was doing everything myself,” she remembers.

“We were in an All-Ireland semi-final with the county and we went the whole way to an All-Ireland club final that year so it was absolutely manic – and on top of that I had decided to go travelling. There was a lot going on, it was a hectic time. We didn’t get all the results on the football field, but I did get the book over the line,” she says.

Festivals and television

While launching the cookbook, Sinéad started doing demonstrations at festivals and cooking on television. She has had a slot on Virgin Media’s Ireland AM since 2019.

“I love doing demos and having that engagement with the audience,” says Sinéad, “demystifying things for them. Cooking is for everyone and you don’t have to be a Michelin-starred chef – you can just perfect a jam and a bread and soup.”

Her interest in food education and cookery demonstrations had an important part to play when she was renovating the property just outside Fethard that is now her home.

Having bought the uninhabited two-bed house in 2019, Sinéad worked with her Dad and younger brother Brian, of cabinet makers HD Design, on plans for what she already knew would be more than a space for living in.

“I knew I wanted to do classes and pop ups. The key was to have the kitchen island big and make it into something that is almost like a stage. I can cook from it, shoot from it and let people come and enjoy the food.”

The focus is on traditional Irish baking using Irish grains and dairy in a friendly environment

She moved into the house in 2022 and her spacious kitchen, filled with light even on a dark winter day, fulfils Sinéad’s remit. A wall of windows looking out into the garden makes the most of any natural light, showcasing the uncluttered, clean lines of dark blue cupboard units and a white quartz-topped island.

This is the base from which she now runs the two strands of her food business: Delalicious, the name she trades under for food creation, private catering, cookery classes and demos; and The Little Deer, which is the brand Sinéad uses for jams, chutneys and other sweet edibles that she makes for local cafés and coffee shops.

The kitchen makes the perfect setting for her Kitchen Experiences, which are hands-on half-days (€70 per person) for small groups (€70 per person).

“Those classes are very enjoyable,” says Sinéad. “We cook together. It’s about learning from each other. The focus is on traditional Irish baking using Irish grains and dairy in a friendly environment.

The two mainstays are scones and brown bread, with a third seasonal sweet or savoury bake, followed by a lunch prepared by myself. People come on their own or with colleagues, old friends or siblings. It’s about togetherness in the kitchen.”

The food trail

Last October, she went part-time in her HSE physio job so that she could concentrate more on food.

“I had been making product lines for local businesses and it was coming to a tipping point. If I didn’t take the time to do it then, I knew that I would look back and regret it. Some colleagues were a bit shocked,” she says, “but for me it was just the right thing to do.”

Sinéad has built her business step-by-step over the last 10 years, often with family support at various pinch points. For example, when she started supplying her popular protein balls to No Filter Coffee in Clonmel in 2023, it coincided with a another commitment: “There was an initial obstacle as I was the physio for the All-Star Ladies Gaelic Football trip to Austin and Mam had to be the delivery driver for me!”

That job led to her producing scones and other baked goods for a variety of outlets including Rívesci HQ in Clonmel and The Coffee Note trailer in Fethard, which is run by a former teammate.

To accompany her deliciously light scones, Sinéad decided to make jam.

“I was always helping Mam making jam at home – raspberry is her signature. I started making enough jam to supply with the scones, small batches of limited edition, seasonal flavours, and a customer asked if the rhubarb and orange was available to buy,” she says. “I knew then that I had people who really wanted to buy the jams. That was an opportunity and I ran with it.”

Using rhubarb from her mother’s garden, blueberries from Clare’s Banner Berries, Tipperary’s Apple Farm strawberries, golden plums from a neighbour’s garden, foraged blackberries and windfall apples, the little pots are packed full of fresh flavours, and have recently been joined by beetroot apple and ginger chutney, made with Feighery’s Farm beetroot.

While Sinéad always looks outwards – “I’ve been fortunate to have done a lot of travel…and social media and my blog has allowed me to interact with a wide audience” – local is key.

“Sourcing local, supplying local, living local. Fethard has been great for everything that I’ve done. I took a stall at the first Christmas Fethard Craft and Food Market last year and had lots of lovely interactions with people. Through sport, I have a network of teammates and they’re a support for The Little Deer and Delalicious,” she says.

“I’m very grateful to have amazing friends and family who help out. My food journey has been a bit all over the place,” Sinéad says, “but it’s very exciting. I don’t know what’s next, and I’m OK with that.”

Sinéad’s next Kitchen Experiences take place on 8 February and 22 March. Find out more on Instagram @delaliciousfood and at delalicious.com