Former royal chef Darren McGrady has revealed that the late Queen Elizabeth would not have entertained any suggestions for her meals, stating she would have “thrown the book at him” had he tried to do so. McGrady remarked that while chefs were keen to “experiment” with the Queen’s diet, her majesty favoured certain dishes and barely changed them throughout her long life.
Biographer Katie Nicholl notes that the Queen began her mornings with a ritualistic cup of tea, biscuit, and bowl of cereal, reportedly keeping her cereal fresh in Tupperware containers. Serving as the Queen’s personal chef from 1982 to 1993, McGrady shares that for lunch, Her Majesty enjoyed simple but healthy options like grilled fish with wilted spinach or courgettes and occasionally grilled chicken with salad, reports the Independent.
The Queen also delighted in the quintessentially British habit of afternoon tea, indulging in scones with jam and clotted cream at 5 pm, a custom continued by King Charles.
McGrady recalls, “She’d always have afternoon tea wherever she was in the world. We’d flown out to Australia and were on the Royal Yacht. It was five o’clock in the morning but for the Queen it was five in the afternoon so my first job was making scones.”
Furthermore, McGrady discloses that the Queen would be presented with a menu twice a week to select her preferred dishes, and if disapproving of an option, she simply left a note in a notebook on her desk requesting not to prepare it again.
The chef has revealed that, while he and his team of 20 chefs often tried to introduce new dishes to the Royal Family’s menu, some suggestions didn’t quite meet with approval, humorously noting that the Queen would “throw the menu book at him” for proposing anything too exotic.
Speaking via Heartbingo, he shared: “We did try to experiment quite a lot. We would send recipes up to the Queen and she would look at it and say yes or no. Or we would send recipes to the nannies for William and Harry.”
Engaged in broadening their culinary horizons, the Royals dabbled in an array of foods, yet the Queen preferred her usual fare, making it tough to introduce novel items.
He said: “They all wanted to broaden their palettes, so they did try lots of different foods. But the Queen tended to stick to the same foods. It was difficult to try and get new things on the menu. If I had said,’Would you like to try kangaroo?’, I think she would have thrown the menu book at me.”
It’s noted that the Queen’s dearest choice was Morecambe Bay potted shrimp on toast, which McGrady prepared with a spicy butter, ensuring they were still warm upon serving to Her Majesty.
He pointed out that the Queen favoured small savoury portions but had a particular sweet tooth for treats served by Royal warrant holders Charbonnel et Walker, Bendicks, and Prestat.
The Queen’s penchant for chocolate was so strong that she could be termed a “chocoholic”. In conversation with Hello magazine back in 2016, McGrady divulged: “Anything we put on the menu that had chocolate on, she would choose, especially chocolate perfection pie [a layered chocolate pie with white and dark chocolate and chocolate shavings].”
King Charles, unlike his mother Queen Elizabeth who had a well-known penchant for sweets, holds an affection for a more traditional fare. The 76-year-old monarch is particularly fond of mutton – the meat from an adult sheep.
Grant Harrold, a former butler in the Royal Household, shared with Express: “King Charles loves mutton, which is a very old fashioned thing. I remember there used to be mutton lunches where he would invite people over and that would be on the menu. I actually got to try some and it was really good.”