{"id":14501,"date":"2020-03-13T14:39:20","date_gmt":"2020-03-13T14:39:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lcnonline.co.uk\/?p=14501"},"modified":"2020-03-13T14:39:20","modified_gmt":"2020-03-13T14:39:20","slug":"jacks-at-home-by-the-sea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lcnonline.co.uk\/jacks-at-home-by-the-sea\/","title":{"rendered":"Jack’s at home by the sea"},"content":{"rendered":"
Jack Mooney fell so much in love with the seaside town of Ballycastle and his role in the kitchens at the Marine Hotel there, that he left his native Whitehead behind and set up home in the Glens of Antrim seven years ago.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n Twenty-six-year-old Jack Mooney took over in the post of head chef at the refurbished seafront property in July of last year, but his association with the hotel goes back much further than that.<\/span><\/p>\n Raised in a family where both parents were committed foodies, Jack grew up surrounded by food and from the age of 15 he was convinced that his future lay in catering. He spent the next four years studying the subject at the University of Ulster in Belfast, during which time he was sent to a variety of venues for on-the-job experience. One of those properties was the Marine Hotel in Ballycastle.<\/span><\/p>\n Around 2013, Adrian McDaid was going through a spell as head chef at the Marine when Jack attended for interview. He recalls that after talking to Adrian, he was offered a job and embarked on what he calls \u2018a fun summer\u2019 at the hotel:<\/span><\/p>\n \u2018I loved it straight away,\u2019 he says. \u2018It was a great way to live, better than anything I\u2019d done before and with a great, hard-working team. I was here for three-and-a-half years and I went through a couple of head chefs in that time, but Adrian was always the one that stuck out for me.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n That said, Jack does admit that the work itself wasn\u2019t always easy. There were many challenges he says, and soon after starting, the amount of banqueting business at the Marine began to increase significantly. Nevertheless, he says, it was a great experience and one he really enjoyed:<\/span><\/p>\n \u2018I didn\u2019t go travelling like lots of chefs do, but I did leave the Marine for two-and-a-half years from 2016 to go to the Ballygally [Castle Hotel] as a sous chef. It was very different, there was a lot of banqueting work and the hotel itself was very highly regarded, something which we constantly aspire to here at the Marine as well.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n