1. Where are you from, and a bit about your background?
I am from Split in Croatia where I began my career over 12 years ago working in mainly seafood restaurants, we would go to the local market in the morning and collect our fresh fish and veg (only market in the world that has no flies as it was built on a sulphur stream) and create our menu for the day, it kept me inspired to walk around and pick out different products to try matching new flavours and trying different techniques of cooking and talking to the locals.
2. What exactly does your position at Killeavy Castle Estate entail?
My position in Killeavy Castle Estate is to work with the staff front and back of the house to help create an experience here in Killeavy that people will remember using local produce.
3. What do you enjoy the most about your job?
I enjoy the atmosphere we have created with the team, it is hard work and there are ups and downs like any job but all the team have a drive that wants to create great food that leaves people smiling when they walk out the door, it’s the positive feedback we get that keeps us pushing to always try and reach that next standard.
4. What do you love most about Killeavy Castle Estate?
I love the fact that Killeavy Castle Estate is kind of like Croatia (without the summer weather and warm seas to swim in) but you do have your own market here where we can go to the garden and collect our vegetables and we have our own beef and lamb and our suppliers are fantastic, they will call in and tell us what they are up to or what new ideas they have coming up or just call in for a chat.
5. What is an interesting fact about you?
An interesting fact about me is, my first bike was a Vespa, I enjoy studying and trialling preserving of different types of foods and since I have come to Ireland I have learnt what core drilling and chasing walls entails and my first Irish saying learnt was ‘never send a gasun on a man’s errand’