Mike MacManus, General Manager of Sea Temple Resort & Spa Palm Cove, spends his average weekend cooking for friends and playing golf

I love cooking and wine, I suppose because I went to catering school and have been involved in hospitality all my life.

I have an affinity with it across the board. My favourite food is Asian and Indian.

I'm originally from Ireland, from Galway, but I grew up in Fiji. I eventually moved to Australia as my family had already moved here.

Growing up in Fiji, we used to trade our lunches of sandwiches for other food.

I make everything from scratch and grind my own spices.

I have always been a fan of wine and have taken trips to winemaking regions, to the Barossa at crushing time, watching them pruning, and going into the propagation sheds, and grafting, and all the other elements of making wine, like soil samples, topography maps, vineyards; all the stuff behind the scenes, in places like the Adelaide Hills and the Hunter Valley.

I’m into varietals, so I enjoy Hunter Valley semillons, Clare Valley bone dry rieslings, and Barossa Valley shiraz wines.

Most definitely I drink wine at weekends.

I really like the outdoors so I go fishing whenever I can, making a pilgrimage to the gulf.

One other passion is my son, Tarquin, who has finished four-and-a-half years of uni in the States and is now a golf pro. Sometimes I go to the States and caddy for him.

I'm in the process of doing home renovations and restorations. I like playing with timber. I did woodwork in school. At home I’ve made everything bar some furniture; all the cabinets, and I've made little things like bar stools and  butcher's blocks.

For my next project, I'm making a dining room table. I usually do my woodwork in the garage. I used to make furniture when I lived on the Gold Coast. I would go and see furniture (in a shop), and then go home and build it myself. I used to put the difference in a bank account and that would give me the tools for the next venture in furniture and fittings. I build a boat, a rowboat, every year.

Other than woodwork I usually do outdoor things, anything that is not at a computer. I enjoy some gardening. I have a relatively small garden, but it's like a jungle, so have been cutting back 30 years of growth.

There is a golf course straight across from me, so I play golf most weekends.

I'm pretty open music-wise, but I read every day.

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