Tops Irish chef Neven Maguire has revealed his young son has big ambitions to follow in his culinary footsteps.
The TV cook, who is dad to 10-year-old twins Connor and Lucia, admitted his boy already enjoys cooking with him at home.
Neven, 46, runs renowned Macnean House and Restaurant in Blacklion, Co Cavan, with his wife Amelda.
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And the chef said his kids would be with him for his cookery demonstrations at the Bloom Festival in Dublin’s Phoenix Park next weekend.
Neven told the Irish Sunday Mirror: “They are going to be coming along to do the cook-along and they have that to look forward to.
“They have always enjoyed food and eating but now it’s nice to see them getting into food and cooking and prepping. I love showing them.
“Connor has said it a few times that he wants to follow in my footsteps, but I take it with a pinch of salt.
“I look at my family and there are nine of us and none of them wanted to continue it on, but I just knew I wanted to be a chef.
We employ 60 in the village and are happy to be busy and open and back at it.
“I got the love of food from my mother, she was a great cook and a wonderful, wonderful mother.
“She taught me about looking after your staff and treating people with kindness.”
Neven is delighted to see his award-winning restaurant busy again after being shut for eight months during the pandemic.
He added: “We would have cancelled a couple of thousand bookings. It was very difficult on staff but it is so nice to be open now.
“We restructured our business – we used to do two sittings and now we do one.
“We have nearly 60 people employed in a small rural village in Blacklion so we are very proud of that and happy to be busy and open and back at it again.
“It’s been a challenge. Even at the minute with price increases, definitely the cost of running a business is going up in every sense of the word.
“But listen we will work through it, we are very lucky and fortunate.”
Neven told how one positive to come out of the pandemic was witnessing people returning to the kitchen to cook.
He continued: “There was one thing for me from a food point of view, and that is how people have reconnected with food and are cooking more. More and more people are cooking at home and are enjoying it.
“That has given me a lot of hope and it has been great to see that.”
The chef said despite TV work and other commitments the thing he enjoyed most during the pandemic was spending more time with his family.
Neven added: “I wasn’t doing the demos or on the road as much obviously but there is nothing wrong with that, it was actually quite a good thing.
“It’s nice to enjoy family life now as well as work life, I think that is important.
“We just had a lovely time together. Once you were able to go for walks and enjoy it together, that’s time you never get back.
“It probably made me realise I needed to slow down a bit too and that I didn’t need to be on the road as much and doing this and that. That’s what it is all about.”
The entire family got Covid-19 last year but Neven said he used the downtime to revive his guilty pleasure and secret hobby – Djing and dance music.
He added: “It’s a bit of fun, I have always enjoyed the music. My mum and dad got me a set of decks when I was 21 and they were up in the attic.
“During Covid when I wasn’t doing much we got them down.
“I have a separate studio where I do the videos and that’s where the decks are so I’m not annoying the neighbours, Amelda or the twins.
“I have been asked to do a lot of things with the music and play at things but it’s only a bit of fun and that’s all it has ever been.
“It has always just been a passion of mine. We used to play it when we would be prepping during the day for service [at the restaurant]. I used to come up to Dublin every two weeks and get records, all vinyl.
“I’m not a DJ, I just enjoy doing it, It’s all dance music.
“Not everyone likes it but I love the beat and the rhythm – it’s high energy and can make you feel very happy and it can fill you with different emotions.
“When I reconnected it just brought back great memories. I used to play at a local nightclub two nights a week.
“It was a bit of fun and all for free, voluntary, and was just great craic. To have the decks which are almost 30 years old and all the records, it just brings great memories of my parents too.”
And he joked: “They were always very supportive, they probably hated the music but never told you that.”
Neven will be at this year’s Bord Bia Bloom Festival where he will demonstrate some simple dishes for the crowds.
He said: “Bloom is one of my favourite shows. What I love most about it is how educational it is and it’s a real family event.
“It’s food, it’s gardening, cooking and it’s everything that is good about life and nature. It just ticks all the boxes.
“I have done every single Bloom and I’m just privileged to have been asked to do it again. I love meeting people.
“Remember I haven’t done a cookery demo in two years – I have done TV and videos but it’s different in front of a live audience, there might be a couple of hundred people there.
“It’s different this year too as we are doing the cook-along for kids. We are going to be doing that for two days.”
Bord Bia Bloom at Phoenix Park runs from the June 2-6 with tickets available at bordbiabloom.com.
