THERE isn't an awful lot in Blacklion, Co Cavan, truth be told. There is a shop or two and a pub or two, and the MacNean Bistro.
Oh, and sometimes, Blacklion will see some kangaroo, or bison, or alligator. That kind of thing.
What is amazing about Blacklion, however, is that nobody takes the presence of such exotica as strange, as unusual. But then, I suppose we would all take these exciting mammals for granted, after a while. Especially if Neven Maguire was our local cook.
Mr Maguire is a fresh faced young man with a fiendish imagination. He cooks in his quiet little family restaurant, the MacNean, where his fiendish imagination cooks up a storm. He will cook kangaroo he roasts the rump and pairs it with glazed onions and a balsamic and tarragon essence or bison or alligator, or whatever he can get his hands on.
He does all the other things as well, of course local Thornhill duckling with carrot and courgette ribbons on a honey and clove gravy brill on a bed of vegetables with a champagne and French parsley sauce saddle of hare stuffed with a basil mousse on a celeriac mash with green peppercorns but it is no surprise that this dynamic young man should search far and wide for new foods to challenge and focus his imagination.
For here is a cook whose style revels in the excitement offered by ingredients, and whose great gift lies in his ability to present them in thrilling contexts.
But, lest one fear that young Mr Maguire needs a fix of exotica before he goes to work, his other great passion is the wealth and quality of local foods which he finds round and about him in Cavan. Ask him why he stays in Blacklion Neven Maguire could hold down a job in any kitchen, anywhere and he immediately replies, "Produce is the backbone of my cooking, and around here I have the best produce".
And boy does he know just what to do with it. I ordered a main course of steamed monkfish with a smoked salmon brandade, matched up with an essence of lobster and saffron, and when it came out I almost had to put on a pair of shades to protect my eyes from its bedazzling whiteness. I like to show the ingredients off," says Mr Maguire. But this showing off doesn't involve a tricksy accumulation of tastes.
Basically, Neven Maguire's cooking is simple, inasmuch as it concentrates on a principal ingredient and coaxes the very best out of it. The memory of a series of dishes tasted a seafood sausage a salad of Eden organic greens a delicate stuffed courgette flower filled with a chicken and pesto mousse the lovely monkfish with the unusual concoction of a smoked brandade to offset it is dominated by the balance and trueness of the dishes, by the way in which the ingredients never lost sight of their intrinsic flavours.
For a young man Neven Maguire is only 23 this is very confident, mature cookery. It showcases ingredients, and the chef's skill, rather than the chef's ego. And it is surprising that the chef doesn't have an ego, for his brief career is already littered with prizes.
He won the Euro Toques young chef competition some time back with dishes that are on offer at the Bistro noodles gratine with lobsters and vegetables on a spice sauce; courgette flower filled with a salmon and truffle mousse on a lobster cream steamed brill on a champagne butter sauce warm salad of woodcock with cabbage and a bacon and thyme gravy pan fried quail on a bed of leeks with essence of truffle and port. He also recently scooped the prize for best dessert at the Wedgewood competition, a success which provoked the young man to burst into tears.
His dessert cookery is mesmeric, plates such as his chocolate assiette with its busy collection of tuiles, sorbets, langue de chats and chocolate pyramids swirling with the intense energy of a Miro painting. He already has a reputation for presenting his desserts at cookery demonstrations, which he does in the locality in addition to teaching at the catering college in Enniskillen, but this is the sort of skill that makes one feel like Picasso's father faced with such brilliance, you want to just hand over your balloon whisk to the youngster, and retire.
The counterpoint to such skill lies in the style of the bistro itself, which is decidedly unvogueish. Mr Maguire's parents, Joe and Vera, opened the MacNean as long ago as 1969, but a bomb four years later put things on hold until they reopened in 1989. Mrs Maguire still cooks alongside her son, with Mr Maguire heavily involved in the whole operation, currently setting up a parallel kitchen to produce prepared dishes.
The Maguire family is a skillful, astute bunch, and they run a restaurant where service and sat is faction are their aims, and their achievement. Elsewhere, such storming cooking as Neven Maguire's might risk being celebrated simply for its dynamism alone. Here, in Blacklion, his work sits happily in the framework of a family business, serviced by excellent suppliers, creating happiness in the local community.
In the near future, we won't be saying there is not an awful lot in Blacklion, Co Cavan, truth be told. We will be saying that Blacklion is where Neven Maguire cooks, a fact which will put this wide spot in the road at the centre of every food lover's culinary map.