Queen Elizabeth II’s chef revealed the secret of Her majesty’s favorite dessert
The former personal chef of Queen Elizabeth II, Darren McGrady, told about the special dish that the monarch was having for breakfast since childhood.
Darren McGrady has worked as the personal chef of Elizabeth II, Prince Philip, Princess Diana and Princes William and Harry for more than 15 years and knows a lot about the cuisine of the royal table. His career at court began in 1982, when Darren was accepted into Buckingham Palace as chef No. 20. The position sounded loud, but in fact, McGrady spent all day peeling carrots for the Queen’s horse, slicing them into pieces and putting them in a bag. Soon he was promoted, and Darren began to cook for Elizabeth II’s corgi (by the way, according to him, the cooks in the kitchen always disliked dogs). And only a few years later, McGrady was entrusted with food for members of the royal family. In 1998, after his retirement, the chef moved to the United States, where he opened his own restaurant and wrote several books on his work at the royal court.
There are a few things that have always struck McGrady during his service to the Queen. One of them is the habit of the monarch always, since early childhood, eating sandwiches with jam in the morning, washing them down with her favorite Earl Grey tea. The future Queen called them “pennies” as a child, as the cooks cut out circles of coins from ready-made toasts and served them to the young Elizabeth in this form. Even when the Queen was spending time at Balmoral Castle, the official residence of the British royal family in Scotland, her chefs were picking fresh strawberries in the garden to make a traditional morning jam for Elizabeth II.
The Queen’s love for jam sandwiches was also confirmed by a short video with Elizabeth II and Paddington bear, released in honor of the platinum jubilee of the Queen’s reign. In the footage, Elizabeth II and the bear cub are drinking tea, and Paddington asks Her Majesty: “Perhaps you want a jam sandwich? I always keep one for emergencies.” And then he takes the treat out of the hat. “Me too, I keep it here,” she replies and takes the same sandwich out of her purse.
The secret of the Queen’s favorite dish is simple: wheat bread dried in a toaster, a thick layer of butter and fresh jam, usually from strawberries. However, sometimes Elizabeth II asked to add another of her favorite secret ingredients to the dessert – whipped cream, McGrady told the Daily Mail. At other times of the day, the monarch could snack on sandwiches with other fillings – tomatoes and hard cheese, cucumbers and mint cream cheese, as well as shrimp – small, brown, harvested in Morecambe (Lancashire) and marinated in spicy oil.
And here is the video with the Queen of Great Britain and Paddington bear:
