ONE MORE THING: CHEF GRAHAM Neville has been elevated to the board of the Residence private members club on St Stephen's Green in Dublin following a sizzling performance by its restaurant last year.

Owner Olivia Gaynor-Long told me this week that Neville’s appointment was recognition for an 80 per cent increase in covers since her takeover in mid-2010.

It seems Neville’s food has helped to drive a 30 per cent rise in revenue since Gaynor-Long took over from the Stokes twins, Christian and Simon, and played a key part in increasing the “fully paid-up membership” by 250 per cent.

Gaynor-Long is coy about actual membership numbers although Residence’s website states that it has more than 1,200.

“His [Neville] antidote for the downturn has been simple: instead of winding back operations or reducing standards when things were difficult, his advice, which we followed, was to raise standards to a level of exceptional quality and expand the restaurant opening hours for lunch from one to five days weekly and for dinner from three to five evenings weekly,” she said.

Gaynor-Long, who is married to wealthy Irish technology entrepreneur Brian Long, has “invested significantly” in upgrading Residence over the past 18 months, although she is reluctant to reveal a figure.

Neville himself has “exciting plans” to progress its food offering.

He intends to develop an organic garden on the outskirts of Dublin to provide up to 90 per cent of the restaurant’s fruit, flower and vegetable requirements.

Jamie Oliver has nothing on this guy.

Neville cut his teeth in Chicago before returning to Ireland and working under Kevin Thornton for seven years at his venue across St Stephen’s Green.

“We are really enthusiastic about the momentum being created here,” Neville said.