The Queen's former personal footman, Paul Burrell, in his book, The Royal Duty, and Darren McGrady, her former personal chef, once revealed how her daily meals are prepared and some of her regular indulges. Drool! 🤤
She has four meals in a day
Breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea, and dinner. She enjoys a modest diet and likes to keep herself healthy. She has little interest in fatty food (though she likes creamy stuff). However, she loves chocolates, especially at tea time.
Royal Tea Time
Her Majesty normally starts her day with a freshly brewed Earl Grey Tea served in a china bone teacup, without milk or sugar. Just pure tea. She sticks with the English brand, Twinings, because it holds a royal warrant of appointment from her.
Her breakfast consists of cereal from Kellogg's accompanied by fruits or yogurt and maple syrup. On some days, she prefers toast with marmalade.
In the 19th century, the Duchess of Bedford, one of the ladies-in-waiting of Queen Victoria, started the tradition of drinking tea in the royal family, which would become quintessential among English customs.
So while the rest of us never take tea time seriously, others may even dismiss it as nonsense, in the British royal family it's an enduring royal tradition. The Queen even organized tea parties in Buckingham Palace's garden twice a year.
The Queen takes her afternoon tea at 5:00 in the afternoon and this is where she indulges in sweets. Her favorite Chocolate Biscuit Cake or Chocolate Perfection Pie is usually served at this hour and is often accompanied by other tea food, either scones or sandwiches.
The meticulous preparation
Apart from chocolates, she likes other sweet treats, Jam pennies for example, which are pieces of bread topped with butter and jam and cut into small circles. Even her late mother and sister loved Jam's pennies.
However, it is in sandwiches that the Queen goes meticulous according to two former palace chefs, so they would throw themselves into an elaborate sandwichy preparation.
Her Majesty, just like her sister, Princess Margaret, and mother, Queen Elizabeth, does not like crust in bread, so it is always removed.
The loaf is always cut lengthways and buttered on both sides before adding the filling, either tuna mayonnaise mixture and sliced cucumber with a crack of pepper, or ham, egg, mustard, and smoked salmon. The sandwiches were then folded in two lengths, removing the crusts, then cut into eight identical triangles.
Fancy dinner of Her Majesty
Dinner time is when the Queen gets fancier. Her dinner meal sometimes consists of grilled pheasant or venison (deer meat) hunted from Balmoral or Sandringham estate. Staples are usually Shepherd's pie, salmon, grouse, lamb, mutton, or beef.
But whatever meat is available, she prefers her steak to be cooked “well done” according to McGrady. “One of the things that really amazed me was that the queen actually likes her meat well done. [But chef] we cook medium-rare all the time” - Darren McGrady
Her dinner is sometimes accompanied by martini aperitif or a glass of champagne, most likely Champagne Bollinger and Krug because these brands hold royal warrants of appointments from her.
However, her favorite tipple is reportedly a cocktail of gin and dubonnet (a sweet, aromatized wine-based aperitif) with a piece of lemon. It's uncertain if she still indulges in cocktail drinks now considering her age.
The Queen is very old school in her meals. When she does not have visitors or dignitaries coming to the palace, her typical meal just consists of meat, vegetables, shepherd's pie, fresh fruits, fish, and chips.
But even if it sounds very ordinary, the kitchen staff made effort to prepare her food in style. For example, mushrooms are often added with a smidgen of marmite.
Normal Eating Habits
Darren McGrady revealed that Her Majesty eats the same dishes the palace chef regularly prepared all season, but when she wants a new meal, her personal chef will prepare a new menu book, a week ahead, then will be sent to her. She will approve the items she likes and crosses out the ones she does not like.
Born into opulence and privileges, the British royal family members, however, surprisingly have normal eating habits just like the rest of us.
Prince Philip was known to have a penchant for barbeques and Russian pie, but he personally cooked food when his schedule allows him.
Before his retirement in 2017, he took charge of the family barbeque parties at Balmoral castle during the summer. And he often bounced in the palace kitchen, unannounced, to check what was for dinner, rattling some kitchen staff. At one point, McGrady mistakes him for a palace gardener.
The Queen, apart from her favorite Chocolate Biscuit Cake and sieved vegetables, loved a Gaelic Steak which McGrady prepared “well-done” in a creamy sauce with Irish whiskey and often serve with baby carrots and mashed potatoes.
One of the Queen's favorite celebratory desserts is Framboises (pronounced frambwa) St. George which McGrady prepared during St. George's Day and Garter Day in Windsor Castle.
Do British royals eat Shellfish?
It has been reported in the news that the British royal family members, especially the Queen, never consume Shellfish and certain types of seafood.
However, McGrady contradicted this in an interview with Food Network in 2018. He said that it's not true that the royal family never indulges on seafood. Actually, they eat shellfish and seafood.
In fact in 1986, when he handled the food preparation for Prince Andrew's wedding reception, one of the dishes McGrady prepared was Eggs Drumkilbo, a type of cocktail dish, and it is lobster.
It was also served during the silver wedding anniversary of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh in November 1972, and the Queen Mother loved it.
The only time the Queen declines to eat Shellfish, especially mussels, is when she is on a foreign trip because of the danger of food poisoning. "Her Majesty does not want to get sick in a foreign land, so she would avoid Shellfish, but when she is at home, she and her family members indulge on seafood especially lobsters", according to one of the former palace chefs.
So now we know the fact. It is not true that the British royal family members do not eat seafood.
Chocoholic Queen
One of the Queen's personal indulges is eating chocolates. She is known to her staff as a chocoholic and loves everything about chocolate goodness.
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And there's one particular chocolate cake that she can't live without! This sweet treat even goes with her when she is on official overseas tours.
Darren McGrady traveled with the Queen on official visits to cook her meals and the ultra-favorite cake that she seems cannot live without - the extra decadent Chocolate Biscuit Cake.
According to McGrady, “This cake is probably the only one that is sent into the royal dining room again and again until it has all gone. If there is anything left when she has it at Buckingham Palace, it then goes to Windsor Castle so she can finish it there”.
McGrady revealed that this luscious chocolate cake has a crunchy texture due to the addition of English cookies called Rich tea biscuits. The cake has a finishing touch of decadent chocolate frosting.
Brands of Chocolates in her table
The Queen does not actually reveal her favorite food. According to a former royal correspondent, Gordon Rayner, who has covered more than 20 royal tours, a palace insider confided why Her Majesty does not divulge her favorite food.
In February and March this year, the Queen's other favorite chocolate brands were captured in her sitting room in Windsor Castle placed on a small table.
The Royal Chocolate Birthday Cake
The royal family has a traditional birthday prepared by the palace chef according to McGrady. Each royal birthday celebrant receives this heavenly luscious chocolate cake.
The recipe was perfected by Queen Victoria's chef in the 19th century and was never modified by succeeding palace chefs until the present day. So it is an authentic taste of a classic Victorian chocolate dessert recipe.
Asking why the recipe was not modified by the modern palace chefs? According to McGrady, "Because there's no need to change it, and the royal family loved the taste. They also wanted to keep the legacy of the Victorian era through this cake so nothing was modified from the original ingredients".
According to Darren McGrady, palace chefs prepared this Chocolate birthday cake for royal family members simply without any elaborate details and decorations. Just a rich chocolate frosting and filling designed with "Happy Birthday".
Happy 96th birthday to Her Majesty! The Queen's official birthday celebration won't happen until the second Saturday of June during Trooping the Colors, also known as the Queen's birthday parade.
UPDATED:
The Royal Family shared this photo of Her Majesty with two of her fell ponies, Bybeck Katie and Bybeck Nightingale. Released by the Royal Windsor Horse Show to mark her 96th birthday.
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