NEW YORK, March 17, 2003 (PRIMEZONE) -- Internationally known travel expert, Stephanie Abrams, host of the nationally syndicated radio talk show, "Travel With Stephanie Abrams!" on the Business Talk Radio Network, dished up a grand buffet of guests on her weekly show which aired last night in the 7pm EST hour coast-to-coast.
The program focused on Ireland and kicked-off with an interview with Noel McMeel, Executive Chef at Castle Leslie in Glaslough, County Monaghan, Ireland. McMeel, in New York at the invitation of Tourism Ireland, the tourist board, to prepare the annual dinner for the investors in the Bank of Ireland, confessed that he "couldn't stop in the States without getting together with Stephanie Abrams! And I was delighted to learn she wanted to share our friendship with her radio audience!"
McMeel and Abrams met last October when Abrams went to Castle Leslie to plan her daughter Tara's wedding. "Tara wanted the wedding festivities to take place in a fairytale setting in an Irish castle. So we went 'castle shopping!' When we decided on Castle Leslie, I asked Orla Carey, at Tourism Ireland, her opinion. She replied, 'Oh, Paul's place!' When I asked, 'Paul Who?' she told me that Paul McCartney married there in June, 2002! We knew at once that we had chosen the right place!"
McMeel, a graduate of the culinary program at Johnson and Wales University, apprenticed with award-winning chefs in the US and Europe. He discussed the professional road which led him to supervise the wedding festivities for over 300 guests at the McCartney wedding, and the intimate three-day festivities of the wedding of Abrams' daughter to Ross Jacobs. Photos of Castle Leslie at displayed on Abrams' award-winning website, www.sabrams.com.
Other guests with Abrams and Dave Isby, her on-air "Traveling Companion," were Peter McCann, General Manager of Dublin's Merrion Hotel, who told of a guest's request for a Leprechaun to present an engagement ring to his intended, and Alish Cantwell, General Manager of The Clarence Hotel, located in Dublin's Temple Bar section, and owned by Bono, a member of rock band, "U2." Portions of the program were sponsored by RCI Holiday Network, offering villas and condos globally.