What would you order for breakfast if you were Queen Elizabeth II for a day? A selection of freshly baked pastries? Scrambled eggs garnished with the finest smoked salmon? Endless plates of Instagrammable avo on toast?
For the actual Queen, it seems the answer is far more low-key (and far more sensible…)
A new interview with Darren McGrady, the former royal chef who cooked for the Queen, Princess Diana and Princes William and Harry over a 15-year period, provides a surprising insight into Her Majesty’s breakfasting habits.
According to McGrady, “breakfast was very simple for Her Majesty. Some Kellogg’s cereal from a plastic container, which she’d serve herself. And some Darjeeling tea.”
You read that correctly: the Queen starts off the day with a cup of tea and what we’re assuming to be cornflakes, served from some Tupperware. What with this and the revelation that the Queen kicks off the day with a gin and Dubonnet, it seems she is truly a woman after our own hearts…
Elaborating on the pressing subject of the ‘plastic container’ elsewhere in the interview, McGrady gives further evidence as to the Queen’s fondness for the humble Tupperware box.
“People always say, ‘Oh, the Queen must eat off gold plates with gold knives and forks,’” he told US Marie Claire.
“Yes, sometimes… but at Balmoral she’d eat fruit from a plastic yellow Tupperware container.”
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Colourful Tupperware: coming to an episode of The Crown near you. The chef does, however, go on to reveal that the Queen once ate off “a marble dish with three gold horses. The dish was encrusted in diamonds, rubies, sapphires and emeralds. Thirty-something years ago it was valued at £500,000.”
Life is all about balance, we suppose.
McGrady’s interview provides plenty of further food (forgive us) for thought. The Queen reportedly hates garlic, while Princes William and Harry were partial to McDonald’s as youngsters.
“I remember the Princess [Diana] came into the kitchen one day and said, ‘Cancel lunch for the boys, I’m taking them out, we’re going to McDonald’s.’ Yeah, the boys loved McDonald’s […] they were royal princes but had children’s palates.”
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This post originally appeared on our sister site, Grazia.
