Castle Leslie Estate enjoyed an incredible night at this year’s Irish Hotel Awards, taking home no fewer than four major awards. Celebrated, multi-award-winning Executive Head Chef Aaron Duffy was named Chef of the Year. At the same time, the national Fine Dining Experience of the Year award also acknowledged Castle Leslie Estate’s outstanding reputation for the consistent delivery of culinary excellence.
Castle Leslie Estate in the timeless setting of Glaslough, County Monaghan, is a very special place and – under the watchful eye of Executive Head Chef Aaron Duffy – the dining experience here is quite simply out of this world.
Celebrating the people and places shaping Ireland’s hospitality landscape, the 2025 Irish Hotel Awards took place at The Johnstown Estate in Enfield, County Meath, on Monday, October 20th, and Aaron was amongst the big winners on the night, claiming the coveted Head Chef of the Year award.
Meanwhile, Castle Leslie Estate also triumphed in the Fine Dining Experience of the Year category, as well as winning two Ulster titles, namely 4-Star Luxury Hotel of the Year and Country House Hotel of the Year, making for a massively successful awards ceremony all around for Aaron and the brilliant Castle Leslie Estate team.
With regards to the honour of being named as Ireland’s Chef of the Year, Tyrone-born Aaron was quick to share the glory with his whole kitchen team: “To get this level of recognition from your industry peers is heart-warming, and it was great to be able to take this award back to the hotel and pass it on to the team.
“While it’s an individual award, to me it’s all about the team we have here at Castle Leslie Estate. Daily, they enable me to do this job to the best of my ability. None of this would be possible without them, and the award is 100 per cent for them.
“There’s a total of 40 of us in the kitchen – a big team, and that doesn’t come without its challenges. But I’m blessed to be surrounded by a very passionate and dedicated people who have been with me for years, and they are the stars of the kitchen at Castle Leslie Estate.”
No matter where one chooses to eat on the Estate, they will experience the best of classic Irish cooking. Castle Leslie Estate sources regional and artisan foods locally and prepares and presents them with imagination and flair. Freshness is their byword, and the Estate’s daily-baked breads, scones, and homemade preserves are enough to tempt any guest.
Executive Head Chef Aaron combines years of Michelin experience and personal passion with tried-and-tested, delicious recipes from the past. Cleverly re-inventing the Castle Leslie Estate Cookbook – a compilation of dog-eared family recipes dating back centuries – he has cleverly stamped a whole new meaning on the expression ‘old meets new’. He and his team cater for all guests’ needs with style and a smile!
At Castle Leslie Estate, it’s all about choice. Aaron and his team cater to both casual diners and those seeking a more formal, romantic experience. Guests can look forward to lazy breakfasts, light lunches in The Lodge or picnic lunches in the woodlands, candlelit dinners in the 2 AA Rosette award-winning Snaffles restaurant or delicious and elegant afternoon tea.
The social hub of the Estate, Conor’s Bar & Lounge, brings locals and guests together in a convivial atmosphere of comfort. Guests can enjoy casual dining at Conor’s Bar & Lounge, featuring traditional country home cooking. With a variety of dishes served throughout the day, there’s something to suit all guests, from hungry horse-riders and starving walking-enthusiasts to health-conscious guests on a breather between treatments at The Victorian Treatment Rooms.
Ireland’s 2025 Chef of the Year has an obvious picture of how kitchen staff should be treated to safeguard the future of hospitality, not just at Castle Leslie Estate but across the island. Prioritising the welfare of those working in hospitality is a pressing issue that’s very close to his heart:
“It’s essential to have good kitchen culture and for everyone in the kitchen to have a good work/life balance,” he continues. “We are a young team and – no different to anywhere else – we all have families and lives outside of work. It’s so important that these are not neglected and that everybody still has time and energy left to enjoy their lives away from the kitchen.
“I try to explain to everybody who works here how vital a healthy work/life balance is. As chefs, we all have to be responsible for the future of the industry, and we have to stand up and say everybody is equal and everybody is important.
“We never hold anybody back if they want to leave because they will still be representing the hotel no matter where they go, but generally anybody who moves on from Castle Leslie Estate to try something else decides they want to come back here because it’s a great place to work.”
For Aaron, keeping people fresh rather than burning them out is the way forward for hospitality – a sector renowned for long, oftentimes gruelling working weeks: “Like I said, everybody has to be able to live a whole life outside of work. It’s not sustainable for me to have any of them here all week, every week. That’s why we have such a big team – so that everyone has time off. They still enjoy their work, and there’s still plenty of it.
“The hours can still be extended. A week’s work can be done over four days, and that gives a good work/life balance with ample time off. That’s why we have strong staff retention here, and I also get the very best out of everybody. They are not overworked or overtired—they are fresh and ready to work when they come in.
“The way things have been done traditionally in hospitality, with people having Mondays and Tuesdays off and then working around the clock from Wednesday through until late on Sunday night, and completely burning themselves out, if that continues, there will be no future for this industry in Ireland. All you have to do to invest in the future is have a few extra bodies; they will still work the same combined hours, except they will be fresher and your team will be happier.”
Is this easier said than done, though, considering that good staff are hard to get in the first place and then ever harder to hold on to thereafter? “I’d say that one of the main reasons why people jump from one job to another is because they aren’t being looked after, and that’s why you don’t get loyalty from them,” Aaron counters. “Anyone happy in their work will stay. I have been at the Castle for coming up on eight years, and a lot of my team have been with me for as long as that. And, without them, I couldn’t do it.”
All of which makes the Chef of the Year award more gratifying… “This is an award for all of us,” Aaron reiterates. “I’ve been fortunate to have received numerous awards over the years, and they are all down to everyone in the kitchen. A chef can’t function alone. We are a team, and we are all as important as each other. We all work together towards the same goal – to consistently produce the best-quality food for our guests who come to stay here – and I think that’s evident in the awards we win.”
The national Fine Dining Experience of the Year award made it a nice double for the kitchen team at Castle Leslie Estate: “To win two All-Ireland awards was brilliant, and we were obviously delighted to pick up the Fine Dining Experience of the Year. We have six kitchens in total on the Estate, which is obviously challenging, but again, that’s why I have such a large and strong team beside me. Because so many of our chefs have been trained in various kitchens, we can move them from one area to another when needed. They are very skilled, versatile and experienced – most of the chefs have been here for five years or more.
“We’re also very proud to enjoy strong relationships and a good reputation with a large number of colleges – South West College, which has three campuses in the North, Southern Regional College in Newry, DKIT in Dundalk, Cavan Institute, Dublin Technical University and even Tralee IT. We’ve been working with those colleges for years, and they understand that we don’t overwork our students, which is why so many of them want to come back and work here once they get a taste of life on Castle Leslie Estate.
“The years go by very quickly, and none of us are going to be around forever – so it’s all about looking to the future and training the next generation of chefs.”
As we all know, a chef’s life is not an easy one. Yet, Aaron relishes and embraces every moment of his celebrated award-winning career at Castle Leslie Estate – which was named as Ireland’s Leading Boutique Hotel for the third time at the 2025 World Travel Awards: “For me, Castle Leslie Estate is my second home – my wife might say it’s my first! – and I really enjoy it,” the 2025 Chef of the Year concludes. “I started cooking when I was 15, 18 years ago, and since I’ve come here, I’ve realised that there’s something very special about this place.
“And everybody here – from the management team to the owner to the staff – is constantly striving to get better all the time. Considering that Castle Leslie Estate started serving tea and scones some 30 years ago, it’s quite remarkable how quickly it has evolved into a luxury hotel and restaurant with an unwavering reputation for fine food. We’ve come a long way, and the key thing for me is that the evolution continues and that it keeps getting better.”
This article was published in Hotel & Tourism Magazine, Spring 2026, Vol 2 No 1
Castle Leslie Estate, featured
