This much I know: Garry Hughes, head chef at the Shelbourne Hotel

The first series of filming The Shelbourne felt like having the police in the building, says Garry Hughes.

We were all on our best behaviour. After a couple of weeks we began to forget that the cameras were there. By the second TV series, we’d forgotten entirely.

School wasn’t for me. I left at 15 and spent a summer washing pots and preparing veg in The Shelbourne Hotel. It is a fairy tale that, twenty years on, I’m its executive chef.