Every so often I take on something that makes me step outside my comfort zone. Something that challenges me. In March, I started something that saw me take not just a step but a giant leap outside that comfort zone.

At the very last minute, I entered RTE’s Today Show Home Cook competition. I hit send on the application form so close to the closing time that I thought maybe it was late and that would be the last I’d hear of it.

However, a few weeks later I got a phone call telling me I was one of eight cooks chosen to cook on the programme. I can honestly reveal here that I got off the phone and started roaring laughing. What the hell had I let myself in for?

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Next minute I’m chatting away to Trisha Lewis, our mentor, and a woman I’ve admired for many years. She asked me so many questions about my recipe, the ingredients, how I would cook it, what I would prepare in advance etc. Just as I do at home I was going to use local, Irish and foraged ingredients so I decided to make dillisk scones with wild garlic pesto.

I can honestly reveal here that I got off the phone and started roaring laughing. What the hell had I let myself in for?

Preparing for my first time cooking on the telly was complicated. I had to be at the RTÉ Cork studios right after I flew back from my uncle’s 90th birthday celebration in Wales. A delayed flight and fuel protests saw me driving to Cork with rollers in my hair, a boot full of ingredients and just enough diesel to get me there.

That first day in the studio was quite a revelation. I had to learn what happens in front of and behind the camera. From preparing the ingredients to understanding the oven it was all alien and nothing like my kitchen. And then in what seemed like minutes Brendan, the floor manager, called for quiet and the cameras were rolling.

Was I nervous? Absolutely. Did I enjoy it? Absolutely. I was buzzing. I left the studio on a high thinking it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

But I was wrong. In fact I ended up back in the studio three more times. On one occasion after another delayed flight, this time following my son’s wedding, I didn’t even have time to take all my wedding luggage out of the boot before heading to Cork.

At the semi-finals I cooked fish pie with nettle mash and salad from my garden. On that occasion I learned how important it was to make sure I had everything I needed before I started. You can’t just look at a camera and say, “I forgot a knife, I’ll be right back.” And yes I did forget a knife so instead of chopping the nettles I was trying to beat them into the mash.

For the final, I decided to go with an elderflower and rhubarb cheesecake which I would serve in posh cocktail glasses. I had to scour Galway to find the perfect ones and broke one en route so I now own five perfect cocktail glasses.

It also gave me the opportunity to highlight Irish food. Milk from Mayo, cream cheese from Wexford, Connemara honey and Limerick butter were among the many great ingredients to make it on set.

Each round of the competition was decided by the public voting online. I’m not a politician so asking people to vote for me wasn’t easy.

But I was so heartened by all who did. People I haven’t seen since national school voted along with colleagues from different jobs I had over the years. The women in the quilting group and the aqua babes were voting like demons. Family and friends from New York to Newport and from Cape Town to Cape Clear got behind me and it was so uplifting.

Cooking live on TV was not something I ever thought about trying to do. I never saw myself sitting still while a make-up artist made me feel beautiful or having the craic live on air with the presenters. I didn’t imagine I could ever relax enough to forget the cameras moving around the studio.

They say you should follow your dreams but maybe sometimes we don’t even know it’s a dream until it happens.