Enterprise Castlerea
Enterprise Castlerea is a local community organisation which developed The Hub to serve as a community centre for the people of Castlerea and its environs. The Hub includes a Montessori pre-school, a gym and fitness club, archery, boxing, badminton and basketball clubs as well as a musicians’ network, meeting and office space.
Enterprise Castlerea has further developed The Hub to encompass An Chistin Cookery School, a state-of-the-art training and community kitchen offering cooking courses at all levels, and An Chistin Food Hubs, business units designed for the development of food products, available for rent to local food producers.
Enterprise Castlerea Committee
Chair – Benny O’Connell
Treasurer – Derval Harte
Secretary – Helen Fleming
Committee Members – Norrie Mooney, Sean Browne, Joe Henry, Anne Keegan, Paschal Fitzmaurice
Staff of An Chistin
Cathy O’Neill, Coordinator
Cathy is a Professional Chef with over twenty years experience of a wide range of catering businesses. She has worked in festivals and events as a manager/chef all over Ireland, including the National Ploughing Championship and Electric Picnic where she was part of a team that won a Bridgestone award. She has previously taught catering for 10 years while keeping her own skills up-to-date working in local restaurants/food businesses and in her own catering businesses. She also spent time working for multi-nationals in varied locations as a relief chef and provided advice for several small businesses in their establishment and growth. She holds a CERT in Professional Cookery and Business Degree in Tourism and Event Management.
Atila Taveres, Assistant Coordinator
Originally from Brazil, Atila grew up on a farm in a very rural area near the Uruguayan border and it was there that his passion for local, quality foods began.He moved to Ireland in 2002 and once here, he quickly became involved in the food industry and settled in Roscommon. He gained his level 7 in Professional Cookery from AIT, Athlone and now has over 20 years’ experience working with many local restaurants, festivals and businesses including Regans, Gleesons and The Roscommon Lamb festival. He is also a certified HACCP tutor.
An Chistin partners with local food and hospitality businesses who provide work experience placements for our students including;
The Abbey Hotel, Roscommon
Bar One, Castlebar
Benny’s Deli, Castlerea
Buffalo Boy, Carrick-on-Shannon
Cahill’s Supervalu, Castlerea
Hestors, Castlerea
Sodexo at NUI Galway
The White House, Ballinlough