Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Neven Maguire" in English language version.
'THE RECESSION MUST be biting," a fellow diner said to be me as we sat down in MacNean House and Restaurant in Blacklion, Co Cavan. "Neven's waiting list is down to six months." [...] Neven has been cooking since the age of 12 when he started to help his mother Vera in the kitchen. Vera and her husband, the late Joe Maguire, bought the restaurant in 1969. This was unfortunate timing. The Northern troubles erupted and Blacklion suffered two bomb attacks, both which destroyed the front of the premises. The Maguires struggled on until 1976. Then they closed the restaurant and switched to the bed and breakfast business, for which there was considerable demand because of the swelling numbers of customs officials and Gardaí. By 1989, the restaurant was open again. Vera had kept her hand in by running a catering business, and Joe took over the front of house role. Neven, now aged 16, was so convinced that he wanted to cook that he left school after the Junior Cert and headed over the border to Fermanagh College in Enniskillen. His first overseas post was at a grand hotel in Berlin. "The chef took me over to this huge fridge and showed me the beef and the lamb. And he told me it was all Irish because Irish is best. It was a very proud moment for me," he recalls.
The clock is ticking, the judges are circling, pots are simmering on stoves. Work stations have become battle stations. It's the final of the Baileys/Euro-Toques young chef of the year. [...] Neven Maguire of MacNean House and Restaurant is being characteristically friendly, and reminiscing about his win in this competition, and how much it meant to him: "one of the best days of my life," he says, with conviction, and a great dollop of charm.
