Ireland's Young Chef Steps Into The Spotlight

Every young chef needs a moment when people start to notice. For Neven Maguire, that moment came at the age of 21. He won the Bailey's Euro-Toques Young Chef of the Year award^[1].

It was a big prize for a cook from a village on the border. Suddenly the name of a small Cavan bistro was being spoken in kitchens far beyond the county, and people began to make the trip to taste his food for themselves.

The Small Screen Calls

The award opened another door, too. Neven has been on television since he was 21^[3]. It was the start of a screen career that would last for decades and make his face familiar in kitchens across Ireland.

In August 1996, The Irish Times came to Blacklion to see what the fuss was about. The paper found a 23-year-old cooking at the MacNean Bistro, with his mother Vera still working beside him^[2].

He was busy. Very busy. Alongside the restaurant, he was teaching at the catering college in Enniskillen. He was building a second kitchen to make prepared dishes. And he had just won the best dessert prize at the Wedgwood competition^[2].

Big Offers, Same Village

Success brings offers. Over the years Neven was asked to open restaurants in Dublin, London, New York and Dubai, and he turned them all down^[3]. He even said no to becoming the Irish chef at Chelsea Football Club^[1].

Why stay? Blacklion was home. The family restaurant was where his story began, and he wanted to keep writing it there.

Even so, he never gave up the day job. Each evening the young award winner was back at the stove in the family bistro, cooking for the guests who had driven up the road to find him^[2].

Looking back, 1996 was the year the rest of Ireland met the young man from Blacklion. He had the awards, he had the camera, and he still had his mother at the next stove^[2][3].