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For 15 years, Darren McGrady cooked for the British royal family, traveling with them to Balmoral Castle each summer for their annual Scottish retreat. In a new interview with British media outlet FoodBible, he is pulling back the curtain on what meal times actually looked like at the historic estate, and the picture is considerably more relaxed than most people would expect.

According to McGrady, the royal family’s summer barbecues at Balmoral were a hands-on family affair, with members of the family taking charge of individual courses rather than leaving everything to the kitchen staff. “You’d often get Princess Anne come down to the kitchen and say: ‘I’m in charge of the first course tonight, what can I take?’” he recalls. “They worked as a family on creating this meal, which they loved. They weren’t afraid to let their hair down and get stuck in.” Prince Edward liked to handle dessert, with McGrady noting the kitchen staff would help prepare pancake batter in advance for the prince to cook. “He’d want to fill them with things like raspberries or strawberries from the garden with ice cream.”

But it was Prince Philip, McGrady says, who was the most enthusiastic cook of the group. “They would go off and take barbecues at Balmoral. He loved to cook and cared about foods and recipes. He’d go on to ask what we could marinate them with and what vegetables were in the garden,” McGrady says. “He’d often walk the gardens and see what was in there. He loved local produce. Then he would be in charge of cooking the main course.”

Royal Couple At BalmoralFox Photos//Getty Images

The royal couple seen fishing at Balmoral in 1972.

McGrady’s account lines up with other glimpses into life at Balmoral that have emerged over the years. Lord Lichfield, a former royal photographer, observed in 1972 that at Balmoral the royals “act as normal people—to a point. Lunch is always outdoors and they are outside every day going on expeditions.” Prince Harry described similar scenes in his memoir Spare, recalling his grandfather at the grill “amid a thick cloud of smoke, tears streaming from his eyes,” tending venison fillets and Cumberland sausages while Queen Elizabeth whisked the salad dressing and set the table.

Rachel King (she/her) is a news writer at Town & Country. Before joining T&C, she spent nearly a decade as an editor at Fortune. Her work covering travel and lifestyle has appeared in Forbes, Observer, Robb Report, Cruise Critic, and Cool Hunting, among others. Originally from San Francisco, she lives in New York with her wife, their daughter, and a precocious labradoodle. Follow her on Instagram at @rk.passport.