“Whatever Jenny McNally has, I use. I’m not looking for anyone else.” It’s a statement of utter fidelity from Kevin Burke, chef patron at Library Street in Dublin 2, and it echoes across the top restaurants, buzziest wine bars and most conscientious cafes of the capital.

McNally co-owns and runs the 99-acre McNally Family Farm in North Dublin with her husband Pat and their five children. She has spent her life farming and the last 30 years building her family’s reputation as a stand-alone organic grower. Not only do chefs use McNally produce, but they develop their menus around it.

“Everything that she produces is always just perfect, delicious,” Burke says. “The flavour of something as simple as a carrot from her is 20-fold compared to what you’d get from a regular produce supplier. It’s hard to believe unless you taste them side by side.”

In London, where Burke worked as head chef at Michelin-starred The Ninth restaurant until 2019, it was standard for every kitchen to have its own particular organic vegetable supplier, so it was a jolt when he moved back to Dublin to find that wasn’t commonplace here. It was through a friend, chef Hugh Higgins, that Burke was introduced to Jenny McNally, and he has used her produce ever since.

“There’s something about her,” Burke says. “She’s no-nonsense, passionate, and she’s never taking the easy route. We work hard enough in the restaurant every single day to make things perfect, and she’s doing it on the exact same level – the exact same.”

McNally’s is not a household name, but as multiple chefs tell me, everyone working in hospitality knows who they are. Eat your way around most interesting spots in the capital, and their produce will be on your plate. It might be at Frank’s Wine Bar, where chef David Bradshaw’s take on Gascon Piperade is a chicken garnish with McNally’s small courgettes and green peppers, or at Kevin O’Donnell’s Michelin Star-tipped Comet, where McNally’s oxheart t