Fast food hacks, a garlic ban, and a hilarious reaction to organic produce from Prince Philip. It's clear that the royal chefs have their work cut out for them.
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00:00Fast food hacks, a garlic ban, and a hilarious reaction to organic produce from Prince Philip,
00:06it's clear that the royal chefs have their work cut out for them.
00:10It should come as no surprise that the royal family prefers to eat fancy cuisine. They
00:14are literal princes and princesses, after all. Prior to Queen Elizabeth II's death in
00:192022, the chefs were tasked with serving primarily French cuisine, staying away from foods that
00:24didn't fall under that umbrella. As former royal chef Darren McGrady told Insider,
00:2911 years at the palace and we never served pizza at all, not even at receptions. The
00:33menus at Buckingham Palace are very traditional French, which wouldn't lean towards having
00:37pizza on it.
00:38Though we don't know what's on the royal family's exact menu, McGrady did reveal one dish the
00:42queen was particularly fond of, telling Hello!,
00:45We cooked a lot of traditional French food like halibut on a bed of spinach.
00:50People around the world love fast food, and it's no different in the United Kingdom. According
00:54to YouGov, 40 percent of Brits eat convenience food once a week. But Queen Elizabeth II reportedly
01:00wasn't asking her security detail to run her to a drive-thru. Instead, if the queen wanted
01:04to eat fast food, her private chefs would cook their own versions for her. As former
01:09royal chef Darren McGrady told Insider,
01:11It always tickled me at Balmoral we would make our own burgers. They would shoot deer
01:15and we would do venison burgers. There'd be gorgeous cranberry and everything stuffed
01:19into them.
01:20The chefs had to follow another rule that affected their fast food creations, and that
01:24was to never make finger food. If the chefs served burgers, they did so without one beloved
01:29ingredient, as McGrady told Insider. They would have burgers but not the buns, so they
01:33would eat it with their knife and fork.
01:35While the chefs weren't digging into their stash of yeast to whip up fresh buns, they
01:39were serving the queen another indulgent food quite often. As McGrady told Hello!, anything
01:43we put on the menu that had chocolate on, she would choose, especially chocolate perfection
01:47pie.
01:48The queen was a chocoholic. She loved chocolate.
01:52Most private chefs have to seek menu approval from their clients, and the queen's chef had
01:57to do the same. Royal chef Darren McGrady revealed to Marie Claire,
02:00At Buckingham Palace, we'd do a menu book that we'd send up to the queen and she could
02:04choose the dishes she wanted. The book would come back to the kitchen and we'd prepare
02:08them.
02:09The queen's menus are done three or more days ahead, and she sticks with them religiously.
02:13The menus might have consisted of meat-heavy dishes, as McGrady told Hello! For a main
02:18course she loved game — things like Gaelic steak, filet steak with a mushroom whiskey
02:22sauce, especially if we did it with venison.
02:25Now that the queen has passed, the chefs have to seek menu approval from someone else. According
02:29to Liverpool Echo, seeking approval from one member of the royal family might not be that
02:34difficult.
02:35The publication revealed that Princess Catherine eats the same breakfast every day. The princess
02:39reportedly enjoys a breakfast of oats, and some of her other favorite foods include watermelon
02:44salad and goji berries. Unsurprisingly, the princess has good taste.
02:49Cooking for the royal family means cooking the food they like, and not experimenting
02:53to find the next greatest dish. In an exclusive interview with Mashed, Darren McGrady shared,
02:57When you are cooking for the royal family, it's not like it's your restaurant, so you
03:01have to prepare the food the way she likes it.
03:03And the queen apparently liked her food without garlic. The new queen consort, Camilla Parker
03:08Bowles, even confirmed that the royal chefs couldn't use garlic in their cooking. During
03:12an appearance on MasterChef Australia, Camilla explained that garlic can't be served because
03:16of the odor it leaves behind after it's been consumed.
03:19I hate to say this, but garlic.
03:22So garlic is a no-no?
03:24Garlic is a no-no.
03:25Because you're talking, chatting, expected to be?
03:27Yes, exactly.
03:28Understandably, no royal wants garlic-induced halitosis when talking to another head of
03:32state. And, according to Darren McGrady, the queen might have had another reason for not
03:37allowing chefs to put garlic in her food, as he told Hello!,
03:40The queen never was a foodie. She always ate to live rather than live to eat. If we
03:44had a new recipe, she'd have to look at the whole recipe before saying, yes, okay, let's
03:48try it. But for the most part, she stuck to the same dishes week in, week out.
03:53Royal chefs are just like any other royal staff members, and that means they have to
03:57follow the same rules as all employees. In particular, the staff apparently have to be
04:01very particular about the perfumes they wear. As royal biographer Ingrid Seward told The
04:06Sun,
04:07"[Phillip once had a footman who used to wear a particular aftershave, and it used
04:11to make him feel quite ill. I think he had to stop wearing it. They can't wear overpowering
04:15scents."
04:16Basically, should you find yourself working at Buckingham Palace one day, be sure to replace
04:20your soaps with unscented versions. Former royal chef Darren McGrady also revealed that
04:24a royal chef's demeanor is just as important as their scent, telling Mashed,
04:28"[50 percent of actually becoming a chef there is your personality. Because we had a very
04:32full nursery, all the children could come into the kitchen at any time. And if we had
04:3720 Gordon Ramsays running around the kitchen swearing and shouting, that would not have
04:40worked."
04:42Queen Elizabeth dearly loved her corgis. According to the BBC, the royal had corgis almost her
04:47entire life, and these pups sure got the royal treatment. Not only did these dogs live in
04:52an actual palace, but they also had their own room at Buckingham. Former royal footman
04:57Stephen Kay told Pure Wow,
04:58"[It's quite regal, a great big dark wooden glossy door with a gold handle and beautifully
05:03polished floor with all these dog beds all over the place.]
05:06The dogs also ate just as well as their owner, as Darren McGrady told Insider,
05:10"[I thought that when I started at the palace I'd be cooking for the queen and different
05:14presidents from around the world. But there I was chopping rabbit for the royal corgis.
05:18In fact, the royal corgis had their own menu.]
05:21The corgis must have been in good health thanks to the chefs preparing rabbit for them. In
05:25fact, rabbit meat is reportedly a great food for dogs to consume, as it's high in protein
05:29and low in cholesterol, and contains a lot of vitamin B12."
05:34Just because you live and work in royal quarters doesn't mean you get to rub shoulders with
05:38the royals themselves. The royal chefs have to maintain their distance from those they're
05:42serving, and the Windsors keep their stuff in separate parts of the palace. Comparing
05:46the living arrangements to those depicted in Downton Abbey, Darren McGrady told Insider,
05:50"[If you were a chef or a footman and you were trying to sneak up to the housemaid's
05:54floor and you got caught, you were in serious trouble. Everyone was segregated. It was the
05:58done thing. We were part of the Victorian era. You couldn't even begin to imagine single
06:03males and single females being on the same floor together."
06:06The chefs also have to refrain from speaking to their employers unless they're spoken to.
06:10Former royal footman Peter Russell revealed in the documentary Royal Servants Behind Closed
06:15Doors,
06:16"[They want you there, but they don't want you there. They want you there because you
06:19have to be there.]
06:21According to Seasonal Food Guide, seasonal food has greater nutritional value than stuff
06:26that is out of season, and it tastes better, too. Unfortunately, there are myriad accessibility
06:31issues when it comes to consuming seasonal fruit, making it nearly impossible for most
06:35people to only eat according to that standard. But the royals live unlike everyone else in
06:40the world, and because they have access to the best of the best, they're able to adapt
06:44their diets to what's healthiest. In fact, Darren McGrady revealed that the queen would
06:48only eat seasonal produce, adding that she wouldn't dare eat a strawberry in January,
06:53per the Daily Mail.
06:54The royals aren't stingy with their seasonal produce, though. If you're fortunate enough
06:58to be invited to one of their events, you'll get in on the healthy foods they're eating,
07:02too. For instance, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle had the chefs follow specific guidelines
07:06for their 2018 wedding reception menu. Royal chef Mark Flanagan revealed, per E! News,
07:11"[We know the couple wanted us to make sure we used all of the local seasonal produce
07:15as much as possible throughout their menu, and this recent good weather is really helping
07:19us to achieve that."
07:21The royals take many aspects of their lives very seriously, and that includes their health.
07:26Since diet is one of the foundations of health, the Windsors do their best to consume foods
07:30that are nutritious, although the exact definition of nutritious has changed a bit over the years.
07:35The Windsors' devotion to healthy food dates back as far as Queen Elizabeth's husband,
07:39with royal chef Darren McGrady telling CNN,
07:41"...the thing with Prince Philip is he's sort of into healthy eating, too."
07:45The queen's husband also wanted his food to taste good, in addition to being nutritious.
07:49McGrady noted to Hello!,
07:50"...Prince Philip was the foodie. He'd want to try any new dishes all the time and got
07:54excited about new ingredients."
07:56Other members of the royal family also wanted to eat healthy food, with Prince Charles ushering
08:00in a new era of organic food. McGrady told CNN,
08:04"...he was organic before organic was even invented."
08:06"...Actually, you have to fit together with nature."
08:09The chef also noted that the organic shift reportedly didn't go over well with Prince
08:13Philip, telling Marie Claire,
08:15"...I said, it's all organic, and he said, oh, bloody organic, and just shook his head
08:19and walked out."
08:21With a new head of the monarchy comes some new rules. Queen Elizabeth II died in September
08:262022, and her son, King Charles III, took over her position, bringing about some new
08:31dietary guidelines. At King Charles' behest, chefs now have to leave foie gras off the
08:36royal menus.
08:37This isn't a completely new rule, though. Back in 2008, the then-Prince Charles commanded
08:42his chefs to stop using foie gras, per The Telegraph. This rule only extended to his
08:46own residences at the time, but now applies to all royal grounds.
08:49"...but there's only room for one sovereign at a time, not two."
08:53While King Charles chose to ban foie gras due to ethical reasons, his impetus behind
08:57eating organic was more health-charged. According to The Guardian, the king said,
09:01"...one of the reasons I went organic 40 years ago was because I felt there was an overuse
09:05of antibiotics, and I felt that if you overdo it, you end up with resistance."
09:10The king also noted that his decision came with some pushback, too, saying,
09:13"...I was told I was a complete idiot for even suggesting going organic."
09:18Some of us would be lost without starchy foods. Bread, potatoes, pasta, and rice enhance the
09:22lives of those who consume them. However, according to multiple reports, royal chefs
09:27weren't allowed to cook with starchy foods, making us deeply sad for anyone who lives
09:31on Windsor grounds.
09:32For Insider, Darren McGrady noted that the queen wasn't a fan of starchy foods, and therefore,
09:37chefs couldn't include food of that ilk in their menus.
09:40This was much to the dismay of Meghan Markle, who loves pasta. The only starch allowed while
09:45the queen was alive was Kellogg's breakfast cereal, but the chefs weren't responsible
09:48for serving that. McGrady told Marie Claire,
09:51"...breakfast was very simple for Her Majesty, some Kellogg's cereal from a plastic container
09:55which she'd serve herself, and some Darjeeling tea."
09:58While chefs couldn't serve the queen starchy foods, they did serve Her Majesty's food on
10:02some unbelievable dinnerware. McGrady revealed to Marie Claire,
10:06It was a marble dish with three gold horses. The dish was encrusted in diamonds, rubies,
10:10sapphires, and emeralds. Thirty-something years ago, it was valued at 500,000 pounds.