Neven Maguire - Chef
I LIVE ABOUT a five-minute drive from the restaurant so I’ll get up at 8.30am, have my Weetabix with yoghurt and head in to do the breakfasts and say goodbye to guests.
Then I’ll take an hour off and go back home to the gym I added on to my house.
I have all sorts of equipment in it and I look at it as an investment in my health. In this business it’s also very easy to put on weight.
If I’m not in the gym I’ll go for a run instead. I love running, not just for the fitness element, but because it clears my head and helps boost concentration.
My days vary enormously. Today I’m driving back from Listowel after the food festival. I’m also in the middle of recording my RTÉ series, which is all about showcasing the best of Irish produce, and that takes up some of my days.
If I’m at home though, I’ll head back after exercising and start working on recipes.
I have a column in the Farmers Journalwhich I have to prepare for and I do a lot of demos too, so I might be perfecting a recipe for one of those.
At the moment I'm preparing a series of recipes for the Food and Winemagazine Christmas Show.
I’ll be doing a number of dishes that will give people an alternative to the traditional turkey, such as venison.
I’ve a team of 10 at the restaurant and the atmosphere is good.
There’s no shouting and roaring in my kitchen. I’ve worked in those places and it doesn’t work.
You have to enjoy what you are doing to be able to do your best work.
The afternoon is spent prepping and we’ll all have our lunch together at 4pm. It’s important for a chef to eat well because it’s physically demanding work.
At 6pm we start cooking and it could be midnight before we are finished and 2am before I’m out the door.
Talking to the guests is a very important part of what I do.
You meet some brilliant people and it’s how I get my feedback – my guests are my most important critics.
Only very rarely do I get to cook at home for my wife. Mainly she cooks for me and she’s much better than she thinks she is.
Then again, I’m very easy to please. If I came to your house and got beans on toast, I’d be happy.
A couple of times a year my wife, the staff and I all go to Dublin, London, Rome or Barcelona for inspiration.
We don’t stay five-star but we eat five-star, and that inspires us to create new dishes.
We’re lucky then that we get to come home and work with the best produce in the world.
* Neven Maguire is the owner of the MacNean House & Restaurant, Blacklion, Co Cavan (macneanrestaurant.com).
* The Food and WineMagazine Christmas Show is on at the RDS, Dublin, November 26th to 28th.
* In conversation with
Sandra O'Connell