Neven up for Best Chef in Ireland

Celebrity chef Neven Maguire will be aiming to win the coveted Best Chef in Ireland Award when he and four other Cavan eateries attend this year’s Irish Restaurant bash.

Five Cavan restaurants celebrated their success at the Ulster Regional Irish Restaurant Awards, and will now go on to represent their county for the national titles at the All-Ireland at Santa Rita/ LIFE Magazine Irish Restaurant Awards on Monday, June 10 in The Burlington Hotel, Dublin.

Nominated across six categories, restaurants from Cavan will face competition in a pool of 32 county award winners and a shortlist of Dublin restaurants in each category.

The Olde Post Inn will compete in the Best Customer Service in Ireland Award, while The Big Apple Restaurant at Black Horse Inn are up for the Faustino Best Gastro Pub in Ireland Award, The Oak Room will hope to win the Joseph Drouhin Best Casual Dining in Ireland Award, The Courtroom Restaurant at Cabra Castle are in contention for Pallas Foods Best Hotel Restaurant in Ireland Award, Neven Maguire of MacNean House is nominated for Tipperary Water Best Chef in Ireland Award, and Neven’s MacNean House is competeing for the Santa Rita Best Restaurant in Ireland Award.

The night will see and expected crowd of up to 800 fellow restaurant owners, staff and industry experts gather in The Burlington Hotel to celebrate their hard work and achievements in the run up to the coveted Awards.

Speaking of the upcoming Awards, Chief Executive of the Restaurants Association of Ireland Adrian Cummins said, 'In their fifth year now, the Irish Restaurant Awards continue to go from strength to strength. Each year, the awards cast a spotlight on the brightest and best players on the island’s restaurant scene.

'The Irish Restaurant Awards are the awards everyone wants to win. This year the nominations went online for the first time and we got a spectacular response from the public- nominations doubled and we received 10,000 votes for whole island of Ireland’s favourite restaurants, chefs, gastro pubs, hotel restaurants and customer service experience.'