Chef Clare Smyth, who holds three Michelin stars for her London restaurant, has revealed the exact menu she served at the Duke and Duchess of Sussex‘s lavish wedding reception in 2018.
The acclaimed chef is set to appear in the second series of Meghan Markle’s lifestyle show on Netflix, With Love, Meghan, in which she shows the former royal how to cook a dish with halibut.
Clare was first hired by the Sussexes to cook for 200 guests at their private reception at Frogmore House in Windsor after their wedding.
In a new interview with The Times, the chef – who cut her teeth working under Gordon Ramsay‘s instruction early in her career – dismissed reports that her menu for the royal wedding included luxury wagyu beef burgers.
The publication noted she was clearly ‘irked’ by the rumours, as she surveyed her elegant fine dining restaurant Core, and said: ‘It wouldn’t take a lot to figure out that we probably didn’t cook burgers.’
The classic tasting menu at Core sets customers back by £255, while the seasonal tasting menu is £265 per person, with an additional £175 charge for a wine pairing.
Harry and Meghan’s royal wedding reception menu included several signature dishes from the restaurant, including a ‘potato and roe’ dish that takes 25 hours to prepare.
The couple and their guests also enjoyed a ‘roast chicken with a twist’, in reference to the way Harry proposed to Meghan.
The former Suits star said yes to the Duke when he popped the question while they were roasting a chicken for dinner and getting ready for a cosy night together.
Shortly after the couple were engaged, they revealed details of the proposal during an interview in 2017.
Harry said: ‘It happened a few weeks ago, earlier this month, here at our cottage; just a standard typical night for us.
Meghan added: ‘Just a cosy night, it was – what we were doing, just roasting chicken.’
Recalling the wedding event, Clare said she ran the kitchen like ‘a Formula One pit lane because things need to run like clockwork and you don’t have any other option but to keep your cool’.
Harry and Meghan’s wedding meal was punctuated by a multi-tiered cake created by Californian Claire Ptak and made using 200 Amalfi lemons, 500 eggs, and 10 bottles of elderflower cordial made at the Queen’s Sandringham estate in Norfolk.
Clare appears as a guest on Meghan’s Netflix series, alongside other high-profile figures in food like Samin Nosrat, of Salt Fat Acid Heat fame, and celebrity chef and restaurateur David Chang.
Clare revealed that she was initially asked to appear on the show to show Meghan how to make fine dining-level food.
During her episode, Clare takes Meghan to a fish market and they pick herbs and vegetables from the Sussexes’ Montecito garden to create an aesthetically pleasing dish, as Meghan was ‘really interested’ in the chef’s ‘tips on presentation and skills’.
The Duchess was also keen to recreate the chef’s specialty sourdough that she serves at Core, made with a 20-year-old starter in a process that would have taken ‘too long for the show’, Clare said.
Other celebrities who also appear on the show include Queer Eye’s Tan France, author and podcast host Jay Shetty, and model and TV personality Chrissy Teigen.
The latter sparked outrage among viewers as Netflix fans highlighted the former Sports Illustrated model’s bullying row.
Meghan has also faced criticism for her show, with many branding the Duchess and her guests ‘boring’ and ‘underwhelming’, or lamenting that the dishes she cooks – such as a one skillet pasta dish – are ‘basic’.
But Clare defended the show and dismissed the criticism, telling The Times that she was ‘not bothered’ about it.
She added: ‘It’s a show that’s quite sweet and nice … It’s easygoing and lighthearted.’
The Duchess of Sussex’s lifestyle show, where she hosts guests in a rented house near her Montecito mansion for privacy reasons, will return on August 26 – just as Netflix loosened its ties with the Sussexes.
With Love, Meghan was renewed for a second season just as season one was released in March. All the episodes were filmed at the same time, it is understood.
Meghan has also filmed a Christmas special for broadcast in December, in a potential clash with the Princess of Wales’ annual carol concert at Westminster Abbey.