In this very special episode of the show, I was delighted to sit down and chat with Neven Maguire.

Neven Maguire is one of Ireland’s best-loved chefs. The restaurateur and media personality is well known for his award-winning MacNean House & Restaurant in Blacklion, Co. Cavan. He is also an author and has a new Book out at the moment - Neven Maguire's Perfect Irish Christmas - which he was kind enough to give me a signed copy of!

I was struck by Neven's passion and energy during our 40+ minute conversation where we cover a lot about his career, life lessons, experiences, and so much more. Just to give you a taste, some of the topics we covered are:

•Earliest Memories growing up around Christmas with Family and Food.
•Always wanting to work with food and cooking from the age of 12.
•Being the first in his school studying Home Economics.
•A view on why Home Economics should be a subject for everyone in School.
•Pride of employing 65 people in his business in Blacklion.
•The value of hard-work at the core of everything Neven does.
•Giving his customers an amazing experience when they visit his restaurant
•Learnings from a number of restaurants from Belfast, to Berlin, and Luxembourg, taking on new skills along the way and making a lot of friends.
•The importance of influences along his journey.
•The Vision for MacNean house when he took it over in 2003.
•Management and Leadership style in the Kitchen.
•Treating his employees like a family and creating an environment for the team to prosper, grow and learn.
•His role evolving over the last few years.
•Becoming an Ambassador for St. James's Target Lung Cancer & working with Dunnes Stores as the Ambassador for Simply Better.
•Enjoying the media work and feeling privileged being on TV.
•Creating cook books and recipes that people can make at home.
•Sampling food in his own restaurant and being very proud of the experience.
•Cooking simple dishes at home with the family and replicating these on the tv shows.
•If not working in the food business, what?
•Passion for Football, Manchester United and People.
•Having a real passion for helping people and realizing how lucky he is with life.
•Training, Exercise and the importance of keeping active for the mind and body.
•Sleep pattern and running on 5-6 hours per night.
•Setting goals to get healthier and be on the road less in 2018.
•Best piece of advice given and shared.
•Views on Success.
•Celebrities who Neven would share dinner with.
•Death Row Meal.

I really hope you enjoy this episode. To learn more about Neven and MacNean House, check out the links on the episode page on the site here - www.robofthegreen.ie/episodes/ep48-nevenmaguire/

Have a great day,
Rob