I'm up at 7.30 on Sunday morning. I go for a run with a friend; we drive over to Marble Arch Caves across the border in Fermanagh and run for between five and eight miles . . . it's unbelievably cold but it's the best possible start to a Sunday. I made a decision a while back to make time for keeping fit and healthy . . . I used to be a runner when I was younger but I'd let it lapse, now I'm back in the gym and running as well.

I'm buzzing when I get back to the restaurant. I have a quick bowl of Weetabix and a coffee. Two of the chefs do breakfast for the guests. We have 10 rooms and they're full every Friday and Saturday night . . .

we're booked up right through until March of next year. Then there's breakfast for the staff . . . it's very important that they're wellnourished because Sunday is a demanding day.

We usually have about 90 in for lunch. We try to be family friendly, encouraging the kids to eat healthily and to try new things . . . they're my customers of the future so I look after them well! We do two sittings and then we'll have another 35 in for dinner.

There are six chefs, all young and hungry. The food is all local, Irish and seasonal. Sunday lunch is a fusion of modern and traditional food . . . we always do two big rib eyes, one welldone and one pink, and we'll have local free-range duck, rare breed pork and some slow-braised lamb that's just falling off the bone.

I don't eat lunch myself . . .

I have a bacon sandwich before lunch service starts and then don't eat again until after evening service, when I'll have a goat's cheese salad. I encourage the staff to eat a good meal around six o'clock and they eat again before they go home. I don't practice what I preach though. I think it's because when you're cooking you're always tasting and you end up not wanting to eat a proper meal. I have an awful sweet tooth too, I really need to watch that.

When everyone's gone I'll have a cup of Barry's tea and do a bit of book work . . . I save the glass of wine for when I'm in somebody else's restaurant.

I'm getting married on 23 December to Imelda, who works front of house in the restaurant. We're having the reception in the Nuremore Hotel in Carrickmacross and we're going to spend Christmas there with someone else doing the cooking before heading off to Australia, New Zealand and Bali for four weeks' holiday. I can't wait.

Because it's a family business, I've worked in the restaurant every New Year's Eve since I was 12, bar the millennium. It'll be closed for five weeks while we're away . . . we're revamping the dining room and kitchen and adding on a bar. No more covers though, I want to keep it intimate.

MacNean House and Restaurant, Blacklion, Co Cavan, 071 985 3022