Neven at the 2015 festival in the Cavan Equestrian Centre.

Taste of Cavan launch in MacNean Bistro today

FOOD Festival set for August 12-13

The biggest and best food festival in the midlands and north-west, Taste of Cavan returns on August 12-13 with more top chefs, more excellent local produce and even more exciting family fun!
Taste of Cavan 2016 and the festival’s new website www.tasteofcavan.ie will be officially launched today (Wednesday), June 1, at Neven Maguire’s MacNean House and Restaurant in Blacklion.
Having firmly established itself as the food event of the summer, Taste of Cavan attracted almost 40,000 visitors last year and this year’s event aims to build on that success, with a spacious new layout at Cavan Equestrian Centre providing even more to savour and enjoy.
The event’s new website provides access to a wealth of information including recipes, chefs’ stories, tourist information and details of over 100 local producers.
This year, Neven Maguire, Rachel Allen, and Richard Corrigan head up a mouth-watering line-up of chefs that also includes the newly-crowned 'Best Chef in Ireland’, Michelin-starred Cavanman Enda McEvoy, local food champion Gearóid Lynch of The Olde Post Inn, rising stars and TV3 regulars Shane Smith and Adrian Martin, Indian food star Anjula Devi, The 'No Salt Chef’ Brian McDermott and popular Bord Bia Ambassador Máire Dufficy.
“What sets Taste of Cavan apart from other food festivals is its focus on food from the roots up. Dubbed 'the new food county’, Cavan ingredients form the basis of delicious meals the world over and nowhere is the 'farm to fork’ philosophy more evident than at this two-day food lovers’ dream,” said new festival chairman Alo Mohan, ahead of today’s launch.
This year’s event will see two spacious food courts, filled with over 130 stands offering the very best in local and regional produce, giving visitors the opportunity to sample the wide variety of top-quality local provenance available in the Breffni County.
Bite-size fun is the name of the game at Taste of Cavan and a giant Kid’s Fun Zone will offer all manner of free family fun activities to keep the little ones entertained including giant slide and obstacle course, Lego workshops, storytelling, Ireland’s fittest child, fossil hunting and much more!

Cookery competition
In a new addition this year, Taste of Cavan 2016 will see Ireland’s best-loved chef, Neven Maguire search for Cavan’s next culinary sensation as he hosts, 'The Home Chef of Cavan’.
The fabulous top prize, which is sure to set tongues wagging across Cavan, is dinner and one night’s stay at Neven Maguire’s exclusive MacNean House and Restaurant, one day (for two people) in Neven’s Cookery School and €200 spending money. There will also be a Taste of Cavan hamper, packed with delicious treats, for the runner-up. To enter visit tasteofcavan.ie/home-chef
“Over the past five years I have seen the Taste of Cavan grow into one of the most successful and best food festivals in Ireland. Being from Cavan I am very proud to be associated with it and to host the launch here in Blacklion,” said Neven.