The Queen’s favourite foods

As Camilla Queen Consort will be crowned Queen on Saturday, May 6, 2023, I am taking the opportunity to wrap up the week with posts on her late mother-in-law.

When it came to food, the Queen had simple tastes. For the most part, she regarded food as fuel rather than an indulgent taste experience, except for the dark chocolate cake she had for tea in the afternoon. She had one slice only. As such, one cake lasted a week.

This 11-minute video discusses what the Queen normally ate during the course of the day. She drank tea rather than coffee. She normally started her day with breakfast cereal or toast and marmalade. Lunch was generally fish and a side salad or vegetable. Dinner was comprised of fish or meat with vegetables. The Queen did not eat much starch, i.e. potatoes, bread or rice, for lunch or dinner.

One item that was banned from the Royal households was garlic, which she loathed. On the other hand she loved dark chocolate but not milk or white chocolate. She was fortunate to have gardens on her estates, providing her with fresh produce and herbs, widely used in the Royal kitchens.

She drank modestly, enjoying a gin and Dubonnet — also her mother’s favourite tipple — before dinner and a glass of champagne at the end of the day:

Darren McGrady cooked for the Queen for ten years. He now lives in Dallas. He has a number of YouTube videos with recipes he made for the Royal Family.

On occasion, he made kedgeree for the Queen for breakfast, which he describes as follows:

Kedgeree was the ultimate Victorian British breakfast comfort food but is traditionally made using (Finnan Haddie) smoked haddock. Once I was able to source it in the US… I just had to make the dish. Kedgeree came to the UK from India during the time of the Raj. British colonials so enjoyed a dish called Khichari/Khichdi, a stew of beans, lentils and rice, though the dish changed drastically by the time it reached London with the addition of fish, cream and boiled eggs. In 1800’s London salmon was rare. It just wouldn’t survive the stage coach journey south from Scotland. Haddock however was cured and smoked and arrived perfect, thus becoming the fish for the dish.

Kedgeree is one of the best meals ever and quite easy to make. You can have it for lunch or dinner, too:

Chef McGrady says that Fridays were fish and chips day, which is still the traditional meal. In Part 1, he shows how he made fish and chips for the Palace staff. He used a beer batter:

However, the Queen preferred a lighter coating on her fish and less frying, so he used bread crumbs on her fish and baked it in the oven. He served it with a tarragon hollandaise, which he also prepares in the video:

Framboises (Raspberries) St George was a customary dish served for annual the Order of the Garter ceremony at Windsor Castle. It is a St George’s Flag made with fresh raspberries and whipped cream:

Chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream filling and dark chocolate ganache on top was the Queen’s favourite birthday treat. McGrady says that the same recipe has been used in the Royal households for 100 years:

In this next video, McGrady tells us how he got a job cooking at Buckingham Palace. He had been working in the kitchens at the Savoy at the time, so he must have done well at his interview, which would have required cooking. He also describes how the Queen chose her personal menus every few days or so. The chef would send up three choices, and the Queen drew a line through the dishes she did not want. She only ate potatoes if she was entertaining guests. She also insisted that her meat be well done, especially beef. That said, she loved rich sauces with plenty of butter and cream.

This dish, one of the Queen’s favourites, is called Gaelic steak, which requires a butter and cream sauce with an onion and mushroom base, flambeed with whisky. Prince Philip requested garlic with his, so the cooks did a separate sauce for him, as the Queen loathed garlic:

This next video has the shortbread recipe he made for the Queen at Balmoral:

And, finally, what else could one serve a chocolate lover — the Queen — at Christmas other than a Yule log? McGrady shows us how to do it. He makes it look so easy:

McGrady shows you how to prepare these dishes in the classically French way, using the original and best methods of cookery.

Interestingly, he never actually met the Queen, although he saw her on two occasions at Balmoral.