My parents – both chefs – split up when I was young and I grew up with mum and stepdad in Mitcham until mum moved us to Cornwall when I was 12 or so. It was the best thing she did because it got me away from my friends who spoke like wannabe-gangsters and wanted to smoke and drink at the weekend. It's not good to be around people who don't want to make anything of themselves.
My mother is a stickler for tidiness and that has come in handy. She didn't like me in her kitchen, but at weekends I spent time with my dad and grandfather and we'd watch cooking programmes and Dad let me cook anything I wanted with him. I knew at 9 or 10 that I wanted to be a chef. Dad and granddad took me to Taste of London when I was 11. In my little autograph book are Gary Rhodes, Antony Worrall Thompson and Angela Hartnett.
While I was at school I worked on a fruit and veg stall at weekends. I got £70. Handling all those ingredients is good. During my last year of school I spent one day at college doing catering NVQs and another working in catering. I didn't like school but I wish I'd tried harder there.
At 17 I got a job at Nathan Outlaw's restaurant in Rock in Cornwall. What swung it for me was wanting it so badly. You have to be prepared to make the kitchen everything in your life, to give up almost everything else, because you want to learn. You can't work 17-hour days if you don't love your work, and if you're into socialising, don't bother.
If I could talk to my 17-year-old self now, I'd say: "Have more confidence." What helped is what Nathan often said: "If you have a bad experience, treat it as a good one – you've learned how not to do something." It's ideal to start a career with someone encouraging. He didn't have to give a crap about me but he arranged for me to go on stages. I did a week each, for instance, at Angela Hartnett's Murano, at Heston's Dinner, with Phil Howard at the Square.
I am now at Murano [in Mayfair]. I know the Italian for fuck off – vaffanculo. My mum's always warned me about men in the kitchen, how vulgar most of them are. They're not the politest people. I've joined in occasionally but I like to keep my head down. I start at 7.30am and finish at 11.15pm, maybe. If you're fretting about the hours, you're in the wrong profession.
In five or more years I'd like to have my own place, probably with my boyfriend Peter, who runs Outlaw's at the Capital in Knightsbridge. He's a bit older than me – 32. Older people help you learn. And living with someone who's in the business means you understand and accept each other's work and hours and need for long lie-ins on days off.
My advice to any chef is to not neck the wine. On days off, sleep. Don't be lazy. Be prepared to give up your life for food.
• This article was amended on 19 May 2014. An earlier version of the sub-heading wrongly said Georgina Dent is demi chef at Cafe Murano rather than Murano.
