COOKING for the Queen means that everything has to be perfect as former royal chef Darren McGrady well knows.
In fact Darren, who worked for the royals for 15 years and cooked at Buckingham Palace, Sandringham and Balmoral, has revealed that when it came to banqueting events he had to prepare no less than 150 plates of food for Her Majesty.
Speaking Coffee Friend, Chef McGrady said: “There were no food tasters, no.
“Some Royals had their food prepared separately away from guests at big banquet events.
“However, with the Queen, we would prepare 150 plates and the Queen’s page would come in and pick one at random.
“That way, if you were to tamper with the food you would have to tamper with all of them.
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“From our perspective, it also meant we had to get the same standard across every plate, not knowing which one the Queen would be eating.”
When it came to picking a dish to serve, Darren said cooks went through a ‘regimented’ process.
He added: “There was quite a regimented process and The Queen stuck with a lot of the same dishes throughout the week.
“If we had a new recipe for a dish, we would have to send the whole recipe up to the Queen and she would look through it.
“There was one time I forgot to send a new recipe to Her Highness. It was at Balmoral and during the strawberry season. I’d sent up the new dish with a regular dish and a note came back to the kitchen.
“That’s how the Queen communicated with us and it read, ‘Who or what are the veiled farmer’s daughters?’ That was the name of the dish. It was strawberried with a cinnamon muesli on the top, which she ended up eating once she knew what it was.”
Pro chef Darren worked in the royal kitchen for 15 years preparing meals for the Queen, Prince Harry, Prince William and Princess Diana during his time at Buckingham Palace.
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Darren also shared that the Queen did not enjoy pizza and during his whole 15 years at the palace not a single pizza was served.
The monarch’s meals are healthy, low-carb affairs, usually grilled fish or chicken with two different vegetables or a big bowl of salad.
