How to pack the perfect packed lunch: 20 expert tips from professional chefs

Make like a professional chef with 20 expert tips to keep your little ones full and satisfied in school, writes Ciara McDonnell

Ciara McDonnell asks Ireland's top chefs what their kids get in their lunchbox 

When I was eight years old, I experienced food envy for the very first time. Two rows down from me, I heard the crunch of another girl devouring Cracottes spread with butter so thick it could have been cheese. They seemed so exotic, so different, that I wanted them immediately. Other items on my envy list included cream crackers with Philadelphia (the height of sophistication), little rectangular wafers with a hazelnut paste in between, and mint or even better, orange-flavoured Club Milks.

It’s not that I had bad lunches, quite the opposite in fact — my mother sent us off to school with delicious picnics of brown bread sandwiches and a blackcurrant Amigo drink and something sweet to enjoy afterwards. Seeing what other children ate gave me a window into their homes, and it was like dining out — my world opened up.