I come from Killen near Inistioge in County Kilkenny in Ireland. I started as a kitchen assistant 15 years ago and learnt to be a dinner lady on the job. I work at Kidbrooke School in Greenwich, London where my official title is unit manager but I call myself a cook!

I met Jamie Oliver in 2004 when he was making his TV series Jamie’s School Dinners. I became his right-hand woman and helped his campaign to improve the nutritional value of Britain’s school dinners.

Since then I haven’t served a single chip! Now I have between 500 and 600 kids eating in the school canteen every day where I serve fresh, homemade food.

I have loved cooking ever since I was a little girl. My mum used to grow her own vegetables and she taught me all about fresh vegetables, fruit, meat and fish. We would go to the garden, dig the vegetables up and she would let me help her prepare our family meals. I loved learning all her little cooking secrets, and our time together in the kitchen made us very close. It was always so much fun spending time cooking with her, but it was even more of a riot when the whole family got together to eat and laugh and argue over who got the biggest portions!