The surprisingly down-to-earth dining habits of royals - Daily Mail

From Prince William’s favourite chocolate biscuit cake to Camilla’s scrambled egg, the surprisingly down-to-earth dining habits of the royals

By Lucia Lamoury For Mailonline

Updated: 09:50 BST, 16 July 2023

It is easy to picture the royal family sitting down for a state banquet, eating luxurious food and dressed in their finest regalia.

But the family also takes pleasure in simple dishes, sometimes spotted indulging in fish and chips while out on their royal duties.

King Charles is a proud advocate of organic foods and farming while the Princess of Wales even does her own grocery shopping, with her favourite dessert being a simple sticky toffee pudding.

Prince William is also not a stranger to the kitchen, putting his cooking skills to the test when wooing Kate Middleton by making her meals such as spaghetti bolognese during their time at university in an attempt to win her affection. 

Here FEMAIL reveals the royals' most down-to-earth dining habits - including a McVitie's biscuit wedding cake...

Chocolate biscuit cake

The chocolate biscuit cake is a snack that has become irresistible to a generations of royal diners. 

According to former royal chef Darren McGrady, the crunchy chocolate treat was a staple at the Queen's afternoon teas. 

Darren revealed that the Queen would not leave any of the cake uneaten, meaning a chef would have to travel with the cake if the Queen ever left the palace while the cake had not been finished, according to Harper's Bazaar.

He said: 'Now the chocolate biscuit cake is the only cake that goes back again and again and again everyday until it's all gone.

'She'll take a small slice every day until eventually there is only one tiny piece, but you have to send that up, she wants to finish the whole of that cake.'

The Queen's taste for chocolate biscuit cake was passed down to her grandsons Prince William and Prince Harry which was described as 'a firm favourite in the royal nursery' by Carolyn Robb, former chef to King Charles and Princess Diana.

Prince William even chose the flavour as one of his wedding cakes for his marriage to Kate Middleton in 2011 alongside a multi-tiered fruit cake. 

Buckingham Palace sent the recipe to chefs at McVitie’s who made an outsized version of the cake including 1,700 biscuits and 17kg of chocolate.

Fish and Chips

Fish and chips is as ubiquitous in the royal household as it is in British culture with lines of royals reported to enjoy the dish.

In an interview with her son and food writer Tom Parker Bowles for You magazine, Queen Consort Camilla said that fish and chips wrapped in paper is one of her favourite foods.

'That smell,' she said. 'You cannot beat proper fish and chips.'

It seemed that the dish was also a regular snack for William and Kate.

During their university days at St Andrews, where the pair first started dating, they were 'regular customers' at award-winning Anstruther Fish Bar in the coastal town of Anstruther.

The couple could not resist returning to the chippy for a 'trip down memory lane' in 2021 during their Scotland trip.

The couple ordered a £7.95 takeaway haddock supper, wrapped in paper, which they ate on a bench on the pier before going back for ice cream.

A royal insider claimed the Queen also used to enjoy a fish and chip takeaway while on her visits to Scotland.

'She very occasionally treats herself to fish and chips when at Balmoral,' the source said, speaking to Fabulous Digital.

'A footman is dispatched to get it from the local town of Ballater.'

Pizza

On a visit to a community garden in Islington in 2019, Kate was left stumped when a schoolgirl asked her if the Queen had ever eaten pizza.

'That’s such a good question, I don’t know,' she responded. 'Maybe next time I see her shall I ask?'

The uncertainty was lifted by Darren McGrady who told MailOnline that pizza was not a dish he ever served the Queen. 

He said: 'I cooked for The Queen for eleven years and never served her pizza once.

'The Queen didn’t even have it on the menu when we were in Palermo, Sicily on HMY Britannia. The chefs had to go ashore after royal dinner to try it.'

However, the chef to the stars went on to reveal that the popular Italian snack was a favourite with the Queen's grandchildren - Prince William and Prince Harry.

He added: 'I didn’t start really cooking pizzas until I moved to Kensington Palace. William and Harry would have had it every night if Nanny had let them. They loved it.'

Kate also admitted to indulging in the treat revealing that she prefers to have bacon as a topping rather than 'spicy pepperoni'.

Sticky Toffee Pudding

The Princess of Wales and mother-of-three's favourite dessert is the humble school canteen classic - sticky toffee pudding, according to former royal chef Darren McGrady.

Speaking to Delish, he revealed his recipe that was served at Buckingham Palace, which involves coating chopped dates with baking soda.

He would then melt Muscovado sugar to make the sticky-sweet glaze before adding the cake batter of eggs, butter, flour and sugar which he would mix with the liquid date combination, then steaming it for an hour.

The classic dessert is not only enjoyed by Kate and Darren added: 'The Queen loved this at Sandringham when it was really cold outside, and when she was at Balmoral, and the rest of the royal family did too.'

Scrambled eggs

While many senior royals are said to enjoy an egg-centred breakfast, the family's relationship with eggs has not always been easy.

In his 2006 book On Royalty, Jeremy Paxman claimed that Charles demanded seven eggs to be boiled for him a day - only eating one to make sure it was cooked to perfection.

He wrote: 'Because [Charles'] staff were never quite sure whether the egg would be precisely to the satisfactory hardness, a series of eggs was cooked, and laid out in an ascending row of numbers.'

Charles was forced to hit back at the claims in the Frequently Asked Questions section of the Clarence House website, with one reading: 'Does The Prince of Wales have seven boiled eggs cooked for his breakfast but only eat one, as claimed in Jeremy Paxman's book On Royalty?'

The royal reply said: 'No, he doesn’t and never has done, at breakfast or any other time.'

Aside from her husband's love of eggs, Camilla is said to enjoy scrambled eggs for breakfast with Charles' Gloucestershire estate Highgrove having boasted pedigree chickens and sought-after bespoke eggs.

The Queen would also sometimes indulge in scrambled eggs for breakfast instead of Special K and fresh fruit.

Australian nutritionist Lee Holmes was given a copy of the Queen's favourite egg recipe which included two unusual ingredients - nutmeg and lemon rind.

 She wrote on her website: 'Ma'am loved to sometimes start the day with a protein packed breakfast and these eggs were tailored to the way that she particularly liked them.'

The eggs would occasionally be served with kippers or with smoked salmon and a grating of truffle. 

Spaghetti Bolognese

In an attempt to win over Kate's heart when they first started dating, William would apparently cook meals for her including spaghetti bolognese.

Speaking to Mary Berry on A Berry Royal Christmas in 2019, the mother-of-three said: 'In university days he used to cook all sorts of meals. I think that's when he was trying to impress me! Things like Bolognese sauce.'

The prince later shared the recipe for his homemade Bolognese sauce for charity cookbook A Taste Of Home, which included 120 meals from the UK's top chefs and celebrities to mark the 40th anniversary of homelessness charity The Passage.

William, who has been The Passage's royal patron since 2019, admitted he wasn't an 'excellent chef' but revealed his recipe because he believes 'sharing makes people who are experiencing homelessness feel right at home'. 

Revealed: Prince William's Spaghetti Bolognese

(Serves four)

Ingredients: 

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 30g butter
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 1 carrot, scrubbed and chopped
• 2 sticks of celery, chopped
• 350g best quality lean beef
• 250ml dry white wine
• 120ml milk
• Pinch of nutmeg, freshly ground
• 1 x 400g tin Italian chopped tomatoes
• 1 tsp tomato purée
• 250g spaghetti or bucatini
• 50g Parmesan cheese, freshly grated
• 2 tbsp freshly chopped flat-leaf parsley, salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method: 

To make the sauce, heat the oil and butter in a large saucepan and fry the onion over a medium heat until just softened, then add the carrot and celery and cook for a couple of minutes, stirring.

Use a fork to crumble the mince and add that to the pan, stirring to mix all together. Cook until the meat is no longer pink but do not let it brown. Pour in the wine and continue cooking until it has all evaporated. Then turn down the heat and stir in the milk and nutmeg, and cook over a medium heat until the milk has evaporated. Stir through the tomatoes and purée then season to taste with salt and pepper. Simmer very, very gently, uncovered, for about three hours, stirring from time to time.

When your sauce is ready, bring a big pot of water to the boil and add a teaspoon of salt. Add the pasta to the water, stir well with a wooden spoon and cook as per the packet instructions. Drain well. Divide the pasta between four bowls and add the hot sauce to each serving. Sprinkle with the parsley and serve the parmesan in a small dish. 

Spaghetti carbonara

Taking after his father's love for classic Italian dishes, Prince George's favourite food is apparently spaghetti carbonara.

Celebrity chef Aldo Zilli said he discovered the news from Prince William who is a patron for youth homelessness charity Centrepoint - an organisation for which Aldo is an ambassador.

He told FEMAIL: '[William's] amazing - I'm waiting for the call because apparently his little boy's favourite is spaghetti carbonara, so I'm waiting for the call to go and cook it for him.'

Cheeky Aldo added: 'If George has my carbonara, he will never have another one, so I need to go and make it, let's get the ball rolling, send me to the palace to cook!' 

Kate also revealed how her children like to get involved when making pasta dishes, including making pasta sauce from scratch.

The princess was speaking to pupils at Lavender Primary School in 2019 and Matthew Kleiner-Mann, chief executive of the the Ivy Learning Trust, said: ‘She was telling us how much her children love cooking and how they cook for her. They made cheesy pasta the other day.

'One stirs the flour, one puts the milk and butter in, and they make salads and stuff.'

Roast chicken

In an interview with Good Housekeeping before her marriage to Prince Harry, actress Meghan Markle said that a roast chicken is her go-to dinner party dish to impress guests.

'There is honestly nothing as delicious, or as impressive, in my opinion, as a perfectly roasted chicken,' she said.

'It’s a game-changer. I bring that to dinner parties and make a lot of friends.'

But a roast chicken took on a new meaning for Meghan when Prince Harry proposed on one knee while they were cooking a roast dinner during a 'cosy night' in at Nottingham Cottage.

Speaking to the BBC during their first joint interview, they des

Speaking of the proposal during their first joint interview with the BBC, Harry said it had been 'just a standard typical night for us'.

Miss Markle added: 'Just a cosy night, it was - what we were doing just roasting chicken and having ...' Harry said he was 'roasting a chicken, trying to roast a chicken'.

Curry

Kate and William disclosed that, like many homes across the UK, the pair love to sit in front of the TV and order a takeaway curry.

During a Radio 1 interview with Scott Mills for their Heads Together Campaign in 2017, they revealed they order a curry while lounging in their comfortable clothes watching Homeland or Game of Thrones at Kensington Palace. 

Scott asked: 'So do you ever order takeaways? What’s your favourite?' Kate admitted: 'Absolutely and curry - definitely!'

When Scott asked if the local takeaways thought an order for Kensington Palace was a joke, William explained: 'It doesn’t usually get ordered to the Palace to be honest, normally someone goes and picks it up.' 

Kate later revealed she enjoys making curry for the whole family but has to cater to each person's preferences for spice.

During a visit to the Aga Khan centre in London in 2019, she admitted to a liking for 'quite hot' curry and added that Princess Charlotte is also 'pretty good' with heat.

Kate said: 'It's so hard cooking curry in the family, the children have a portion with no spice.'

Referring to William, she said: 'Yours is medium, and I quite like it hot. Still, Charlotte is pretty good with heat.'

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