King Charles‘ former chef has opened up about the royals‘ summer holidays, including their surprisingly normal routine at Balmoral.
Darren McGrady, who worked for the royals for 15 years, travelled around the world with the family ensuring they had their favourite, high-quality meals wherever they went.
Speaking to Heart Bingo, he revealed while at the estate, he would prepare sandwiches and fruit and cream for the late Queen Elizabeth II and her ladies-in-waiting to enjoy on picnics.
He added that they would also pack food in Tupperware when they went out for barbecues – at which Prince Phillip was particularly talented.
He also opened up about life on the Royal Yacht Britannia, where he worked for 11 years, and explained how they always ensured their ingredients were of the highest quality, regardless of where they were in the world.
According to the chef there was zero tolerance for waste. If a cut of meat was left over from the previous day, it went into sandwiches.
Bizarrely, the royals would also enjoy Christmas pudding in summer as chefs would pack a slice of the festive treat in their lunch boxes when they went on royal ‘stalking’ expeditions.
This behind-the-scenes glimpse into royal summers proves that while the Royal Family may live in palaces and sail on yachts, their stomachs are firmly grounded.
Summers in Balmoral
Darren revealed what the royal family would typically eat during their summer holidays – including several surprisingly normal British staples.
Darren explained whether it was a classic Eton mess or a rich sticky toffee pudding, that was considered ‘pudding’ in royal circles.
Only after that came ‘dessert’, a completely separate course consisting of seasonal fruit.
He said: ‘If the royals are entertaining at Balmoral during the summer, they would have 14 to 20 guests there.
‘They would start off with a first course, then they would have a main course with a salad alongside in a kidney shaped dish.
‘Then they would have pudding. Some people call it dessert, and it’s not dessert. Whether you’re having an Eton Mess or a sticky toffee pudding, it’s all pudding. After pudding you have dessert, which is fruit.
‘In London there would be four different types of fruit on the table, but in Balmoral we had an abundance of fruit – raspberries, blackcurrants, blackberries, red currants and gooseberries – all grown on the estate.
‘So instead of having a pineapple on the table that we had hollowed out and cut rings into like we would in London, there would be a bowl of fruit and a jug of cream from Windsor Castle. The cream would be shipped up to Balmoral every week.’
Despite having the world’s finest ingredients at her fingertips, the late Queen preferred to keep things seasonal and eating from the Balmoral garden ingredients, with Darren saying she wouldn’t be pleased if strawberries were on the menu in winter.
‘The late Queen could have any food she wanted, but she loved to eat seasonally – and it’s the same with Charles now,’ he explained.
‘The Balmoral gardens were incredible, still are today. The late Queen would have whatever was in the garden, whatever was available.
‘She was happy to have strawberries four or five days a week if they were from the Balmoral gardens and they were in season.
‘If any chef dared to put strawberries on the menu in winter it wouldn’t have gone down well.’
Balmoral barbecues
When the late Prince Philip fancied a barbecue, everyone knew about it and the kitchen staff quickly sprang into action.
Darren explained: ‘If they decided they were going off to one of the lodges on the estate and Prince Philip was cooking, he would come to the kitchens and ask what we had [in the kitchens].
‘Word would go around that the Duke was down and that meant it was a barbecue.
‘He would come into the different departments and ask what we had. The Duke was a real foodie, and really clever.
‘He would ask if we had venison, fillet of beef or any salmon. Then he would build a menu from that.
‘He would go into the pastry kitchen and ask what puddings we had. Usually it was ice cream, they liked it.
‘Most of the time he would have gone to the gardens and seen what was available. He would come to the kitchen and say ‘do we have any blueberries’.
He added: ‘You had to be ready. If you said you would have to go and check, he would get really angry. You had to know what was available.
‘I used to go to the garden almost every afternoon and just walk around briefly in case it came up. It was a loaded question, he already knew what we had.
‘We would take the meat and marinate it in all the spices, and put everything in Tupperware containers.
‘All the food would then go out on the trailer on the back of his Land Rover to one of the lodges.
‘They got to spend time just as a family, with no servants or staff. He would go out and light the charcoal fire.
‘Later on the late Queen and the ladies would all turn up, and the fire was burning and everyone was ready for him to cook dinner.’
A royal picnic
Life at Balmoral wasn’t all formal dinners and a lot of meals were taken out in the wild.
From royal picnics to stag-hunting lunches, everything had to be packed and ready for wherever the day took them.
Darren explained: ‘Two days a week the men went out ‘stalking’, which is when you go out individually with a gamekeeper and crawl through the Scottish Highlands.
‘They would be gone from 6am until after lunch, or until they got a stag – so we had to send ‘stalking lunches’.
‘They had to be more robust, you couldn’t have an Eton Mess flapping about when you were crawling through the heather.
‘It would be a robust sandwich, a piece of game pie that we had made in the kitchen and two slices of plum pudding.’
Surprisingly, the royal family would even eat Christmas puddings all year round.
Darren said: ‘When we made the Christmas puddings in September at Buckingham Palace, we would also make rectangular Christmas puddings and save them all year to be sent up to Balmoral in the summer.
‘They would be sliced into little fingers. So they had a bit of cold Christmas pudding while you were out in the highlands. I think it was the perfect treat.
Meanwhile, the Royal Family went out to the hills for lunch a lot of the time. At Balmoral there are eight or ten lodges on the estate.
Darren said you would often see the Queen and her ladies-in-waiting going out for a picnic lunch.
He said: ‘They would take a collection of sandwiches and some fresh berries with some cream. The sandwiches were made with things from the estate.
‘There was no wastage allowed, the Queen was very frugal. So if we had things like venison left from the day before we would make a pate from it and use it as a sandwich filling, they had Coronation Chicken or local shrimp, anything like that could be put in a sandwich.
‘Apart from that it was just basic sandwiches – ham, egg and cress kind of things.
‘Charles didn’t really eat lunch, but if he did he would take a sandwich with an easel and go out painting for hours and hours on the Balmoral Estate.’
The Royal Yacht Britannia
It wasn’t just Balmoral where the Royal Family dined in style and life aboard the Royal Yacht Britannia came with its own routines and challenges.
Darren spent 11 years on the Royal Britannia travelling the world, describing it as ‘many happy years’.
He said: ‘If it was a State Visit trip we would have to get the food onto Britannia at least a month before so she had time to sail. Not the fresh produce, but the meat and the fish.
‘Everything would be in boxes and we had red numbered tags which we tied to them.
‘We would fly and meet the yacht, and then we would have to bring up these boxes.
‘We weren’t really sure what the produce was going to be like and we had to have the best ingredients, so getting it shipped to us ensured we got the best items.
‘We sent a rekky team ahead so they could meet with local suppliers for fruit, veg and dairy, so we could say this is exactly what we want when we order.
‘Everything had to be perfectly ripe every time, everything had to be perfect every time – so it had to be prepared ahead of time.’
Behind the scenes, life in the yacht’s kitchens was a world of tight spaces and the occasional challenge.
He added: ‘The royal yacht had its own sailors and chefs on board. The chefs in the main gally cooked for the sailors, then there were chefs in the ward room cooking for the officers.
‘We would borrow a chief petty officer and a leading hand who would come and work with five chefs in our kitchen, and they would help us go down to the bow to the freezers and bring these things up. They helped us create the banquets. The kitchens were much, much smaller.
‘The downside was we had no air conditioning, and so if we were in Australia and it was 80 something degrees you didn’t have AC.
‘AC started at the royal dining room and went upfront. So if we were onboard and I made a chocolate cake, I would have to take it into the royal dining room and sit it on the table so it had the chance to set, it was too hot in the kitchens to set. I would then have to whisk it out quickly before the royals arrived.
‘When the royals weren’t on a working trip, it was just so peaceful and quiet. We would prepare a picnic for the royals to take on shore. That’s why the late Queen loved her floating palace so much.’