Blacklion chef wins major book award

Neven Maguire has launched his MacNean Christmas Hampers for the season of giving.

“This has been a great boost,” said Neven Maguire, chef/proprietor of MacNean House and Restaurant, on hearing that ‘Neven Maguire's 'Midweek Meals’, published earlier this year, had won Bookselling Ireland's Cookbook of the Year 2020 award at the An Post Irish Book Awards.

“I was delighted and thank you to everyone who bought it and to the fantastic team at Gill books who are a joy to work with. The book came from a conversation with Nikki Howard, Director of Gill Books, and  seems to have filled a gap in the market. When it was written we had no idea that Covid was around the corner and that so many people would be cooking at home and looking for tasty recipes that are easy to prepare and work for all sorts of households. And photographer Jo Murphy once again made the food look good enough to eat off the page. ” the chef continued.

This year’s awards attracted over 143,000 votes from the public which is an increase of 25% on last year.

The awards programme can be viewed on RTE Player and the overall winner will be announced on a programme presented by Miriam O’Callaghan on RTE1 at 10.15 on December 10.

For MacNean, as for every restaurant, 2020 has been a very difficult year. During the first lockdown Neven, his wife Amelda, and their team put a lot of effort into training and restructuring the restaurant to make is safe for customers and staff. This was working well but then came the second lockdown.

The team are looking forward to opening again as soon as regulations permit. Keep an eye on www.nevenmaguire.com for up to date information.

“We are all looking forward to getting back to the sound of a busy restaurant and getting back to work. In the meantime this award gave us all a welcome lift,” said a happy Neven, who last week also launched his 'MacNean Christmas Hamper' for the season of giving, each filled with some of his favourite foody products the beautiful hampers will make a wonderful gift to inspire the home-cook this Christmas.

A signed copy of Neven’s new cookbook “Neven Maguire’s Midweek Meals” is also included.