- Her Majesty sticks to a four-meal-a-day plan
- Darren McGrady cooked 'clean and simple' dishes for 15 years at Buckingham Palace
By Sadie Whitelocks
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A woman of simple tastes: Queen Elizabeth II pictured in 1977
Special K, jam sandwiches and chocolate cake are some of the Queen's favourite foods, according to her former personal chef.
Darren McGrady, who worked at the Buckingham Palace kitchens for fifteen years, has revealed that away from the spotlight the 86-year-old British Monarch is a woman of simple tastes.
While she feasts on elaborate dishes at state banquets, when at home she enjoys uncomplicated cuisine.
McGrady said that she traditionally starts the day with a light breakfast followed by lunch, afternoon tea and dinner, topped off with a generous gin and Dubonnet before bedtime.
The 49-year-old chef, who also cooked for Princess Diana and Princes’ William and Harry, said that Cornflakes or Special K were popular requests at the breakfast table, with a helping of dried fruit or macadamia nuts.
While Darjeeling tea was the drink of choice.
A typical lunch, served at 1pm, would be fish, such as a grilled Dover sole, placed on a bed of wilted spinach.
'She loved grilled Dover sole. Really simple, light and no sauce. Clean and simple that was how she liked it,' he told MailOnline.
Then there would be afternoon tea of cakes, scones and sandwiches using de-crusted bread.
Honey sponge, ginger cake and the chocolate biscuit recipe that Prince William chose to be served at his wedding reception were the top sweet treats and McGrady would also rustle up his special Chocolate Perfection Pie.
Simple, but given the Royal seal of approval: Jam sandwiches and Special K are two of the Queen's top treats
Chefs prepare a state banquet at Windsor, but Her Majesty doesn't always go for the finest foods
'The Queen loves chocolate, and the Chocolate Perfection Pie was one of her favourites. It has three layers and I think the word perfection sums up her 60-year reign.'
But when she ate alone the Queen would prefer fruit over pudding. 'Chocolate is one of her favourites but when she dined alone she would just have a dish of fruit, an apple or a peach.'
DARREN MCGRADY: THE QUEEN'S MENU
BREAKFAST: Cereal, dried fruit, macadamia nuts
LUNCH: Grilled Dover sole, wilted spinach, courgette
AFTERNOON TEA: Selection of cakes, scones and sandwiches
DINNER: Venison from Balmoral, white peaches from Windsor Castle, gin and Dubonnet
At least two varieties of sandwich were offered, such as cucumber or egg mayonnaise, with the crusts cut off.
‘Even if she’s on her own, there’s sandwiches with the crusts off, white and brown; plain scones one day, fruit the next; a whole ginger or chocolate cake or a honey and cream sponge and small cakes like chocolate éclairs.
'She’ll only have one or two sandwiches and maybe a sliver of cake.’
Mr McGrady also spent his day making jam pennies - miniature raspberry jam sandwiches cut into circles the size of an old English penny - during his time in the Royal household.
In the evening she would normally have a gin and Dubonnet; one part gin and two parts Dubonnet.
The Queen's love of the drink is well-documented, and when the BBC1 documentary The Royal Family At Work showed a butler mixing one for her, demand for the product went through the roof.
Former Palace chef Darren McGrady
Then for dinner there would be game or fish such as pheasant from Sandringham or venison or salmon from Balmoral.
For pudding, fresh fruit, particularly the white peaches grown in greenhouses at Windsor Castle.
'Game from any of the royal household were popular and peaches were her favourite.' Mr McGrady added.
He started at Buckingham Palace in 1982, when he was 20, the most junior of 20 cooks in the kitchens, although he had already risen to chef de partie saucier (head sauce chef) at the Savoy.
His royal CV has taken him to America, where he is now private chef to Mrs Dee Wyly, widow of a billionaire philanthropist in Dallas, Texas. But even now, he doubts the Queen has cooked a meal in her life.
'At the end of the meal, the Queen will rinse the plates, that’s her contribution.
'When I worked for Princess Diana, she’d occasionally cook a little something when she had friends over, maybe pasta with a sauce.
But that’s something the Queen would never do.’
To celebrate the launch of New Tastier Flora and the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, Darren McGrady has created the Flora Celebration Sandwich. Visit www.facebook.com/florahearts for more details
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I am so pleased to learn that Her Majesty has an apple or peach a day. As one ages one needs one's fibre she won't get much from a bowl of Special K even with the odd macadamia nut thrown in. Keep it up ma'am and long may you reign.
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Why no recipe for the Chocolate Perfection Pie after the big send-up? That sounds delightful!
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"Mr Kellog was against m***rtbation. Cornflakes were designed as a very dry powdery snack, as dry, powdery snacks were believed to lower peoples desires to engage in said act." Dill, Enfield, 21:42:----- Really? You're obviously not eating enough of them then.
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Trust me, you don't want a Republic..look at the mess we have here! God Save the Queen!
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I love the Queen ............Long Live the Queen............
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Utterly fascinating and incredibly important article - not. Would love to see Brenda in a red dress swishing her frock due to the drop a dress size challenge.
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Ok, I'll ask then...what the heck does the late princess of Wales have to do with this article and why is she included? I couldn't tell who ate sole until I saw the sidebar. Please DM, stick to the topic at hand.
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Considering the huge salary the taxpayers give her for waving and smiling duties, and the infamously low wages she pays her minions, it makes me wonder why she can't treat herself to a good Australian steak and fried egg breakfast ocasionally. - Observatoire, USA, 31/5/2012 22:01 I'd have thought you would be better employed Observatoire...ing in your own country which, let's face it, is not exactly "run to perfection".
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I feel sorry that the medication of so many Naaaaasty, small minded souls seems to have worn off for them to feel obliged to witter on so sadly about the fact they wished they lived in a Republic, without having the grace to actually s*d off and live in one !!!! I really do feel sorry for the the poor things. Go on, go somewhere that you'll fit in. Don't worry ... be happy. Somewhere else. Miserable g*ts !!!!!!! - guinevere, england, 31/5/2012 22:55 ++++++++++++sounds like you're the one needing medication!! Are you actually sat at your PC getting into a tizzy about other peoples' opinions???? This is a democracy, after all. We all have a right to vocalise our opinions without being lambasted for them! Many Australians wish to become a republic - do you suggest they leave Australia??? I think you need to take some more valium and relax a little bit!!
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sooo many bad comments, don't these people realise that the queen brings millions of pounds into the country, she does not sit on her backside watching telly all day, like so many on benifits who do nothing for the counry they live in, I expect she would love to have days where she was not meeting and enteraining people, she most likely when she has the chance likes put her feet up and enjoy simple food, i would hate to have lavish dinners all the time. how many of you will be doing what she does at over 80 yrs old, you will be sitting at home still moaning about the royal family, I love the royal family and the UK would be a much poorer place with out them, Here they have day off on the queens birthday, which you don't get in the UK
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