This is Chef Kev. He’s from Kilcock in County Kildare, Ireland. He’s the youngest boy of a big family and it’s not uncommon to have one to three or more of his nine nieces and nephews running around his childhood home. One day, the oldest of the nieces decided to call him as she saw it. Now, all of the kids call him “Chef Kev”.

To be a chef in Ireland is about your meat and potatoes, but the newest generation of cooks hailing from Ireland bring with them a modern edge: experimentation, a yearning for something new, and that good ol’ fashioned sociability that we call the gift of the gab.