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Jenny Greene talks social media pressure and taking criticism on The Restaurant

"I went in there thinking that it was going to be hell on earth"

Jenny Greene has revealed that she didn’t mind having her menu criticized on tonight’s episode of The Restaurant on Virgin Media One.

The popular radio host explained that her menu was inspired by her life experiences –  with her starter paying homage to her mum, and her main giving a nod to her wedding to wife Kelly Keogh.

“I’m a big foodie in that I like eating the food,” she joked to Goss.ie.

“I’m not sure that I would be that confident in the kitchen, I would say I wouldn’t be bad in the kitchen but I wouldn’t be amazing either but I do like to cook.”

Ahead of her time on the show, Jenny was prepared for a challenging day – but loved her experience: “Anyone I’ve spoken to about doing it, and a few people I knew who had done it, everyone was warning me what a long and stressful day it was so because of that it was good because I went in there thinking that it was going to be hell on earth so nothing seemed as bad as I had built it up in my head to be.”

“It was a very long day but I had a great laugh. I really enjoyed it,” she said.

On hearing the critique from the food critics and Restaurant guests through the kitchen, Jenny explained that she wouldn’t be one to take things too seriously.

“Getting the critique was fine, I don’t mind that. It was so noisy in the kitchen that I actually was finding it hard to hear what they were saying, and I was watching other people’s faces in the kitchen that were getting a bit annoyed at the comments but I couldn’t hear them that well and I kept asking them to turn it up! That’s probably the bit of deafness from DJing,” she joked.

“Maybe ignorance is bliss but I didn’t mind that too much because going into that I was like ‘I’m not a chef,’ so if someone criticizes the food it wouldn’t upset me too much and I just don’t know why you would take it that personally unless you are a chef.”

Touching on the outpouring of opinions on social media following the announcement of RTE’s radio reshuffle earlier this year, which say Jenny walk away from the station temporarily, she noted:

“There is so much out there now and everyone has this platform to say whatever they want whenever they want. I don’t generally partake in any of that.”

“Obviously there were a lot of very nice things that were written online and I’ve no doubt that they probably helped me get where I am today so I’m extremely grateful for that but in general I don’t pay too much attention to it,” she explained.

“If you tuned in to everything that you read, you probably wouldn’t get up in the morning.”

Jenny can be seen taking on the Head Chef Challenge at 9pm on Thursday 10th of October on Virgin Media One.

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