It is easy to picture the Royal family sitting down for a state banquet, eating luxurious food and dressed in their finest regalia.
But the family also takes pleasure in simple dishes, sometimes spotted indulging in fish and chips while out on their royal duties.
King Charles is a proud advocate of organic foods and farming while the Princess of Wales even does her own grocery shopping, with her favourite dessert being a simple sticky toffee pudding.
Prince William is also not a stranger to the kitchen, putting his cooking skills to the test when wooing Kate Middleton by making her meals such as spaghetti bolognese during their time at university in an attempt to win her affection.
Here FEMAIL reveals the royals’ most down-to-earth dining habits – including a McVitie’s biscuit wedding cake…
Chocolate biscuit cake
The chocolate biscuit cake is a snack that has become irresistible to a generations of royal diners
The chocolate biscuit cake is a snack that has become irresistible to a generations of royal diners.
According to former royal chef Darren McGrady, the crunchy chocolate treat was a staple at the Queen’s afternoon teas.
Darren revealed that the Queen would not leave any of the cake uneaten, meaning a chef would have to travel with the cake if the Queen ever left the palace while the cake had not been finished, according to Harper’s Bazaar.
He said: ‘Now the chocolate biscuit cake is the only cake that goes back again and again and again everyday until it’s all gone.
‘She’ll take a small slice every day until eventually there is only one tiny piece, but you have to send that up, she wants to finish the whole of that cake.’
The Queen would eat a slice of the cake everyday until it had all been finished, according to former royal chef Darren McGrady
The Queen’s taste for chocolate biscuit cake was passed down to her grandsons Prince William and Prince Harry which was described as ‘a firm favourite in the royal nursery’ by Carolyn Robb, former chef to King Charles and Princess Diana.
Prince William even chose the flavour as one of his wedding cakes for his marriage to Kate Middleton in 2011 alongside a multi-tiered fruit cake.
Buckingham Palace sent the recipe to chefs at McVitie’s who made an outsized version of the cake including 1,700 biscuits and 17kg of chocolate.
Fish and Chips
Queen Consort Camilla said that fish and chips wrapped in paper is one of her favourite foods
Fish and chips is as ubiquitous in the royal household as it is in British culture with lines of royals reported to enjoy the dish.
In an interview with her son and food writer Tom Parker Bowles for You magazine, Queen Consort Camilla said that fish and chips wrapped in paper is one of her favourite foods.
‘That smell,’ she said. ‘You cannot beat proper fish and chips.’
It seemed that the dish was also a regular snack for William and Kate.
During their university days at St Andrews, where the pair first started dating, they were ‘regular customers’ at award-winning Anstruther Fish Bar in the coastal town of Anstruther.
Prince William and Kate Middleton were regulars at Anstruther Fish Bar when they were students at St Andrews University and they paid a visit during their 2021 Scotland trip
The couple could not resist returning to the chippy for a ‘trip down memory lane’ in 2021 during their Scotland trip.
The couple ordered a £7.95 takeaway haddock supper, wrapped in paper, which they ate on a bench on the pier before going back for ice cream.
A royal insider claimed the Queen also used to enjoy a fish and chip takeaway while on her visits to Scotland.
‘She very occasionally treats herself to fish and chips when at Balmoral,’ the source said, speaking to Fabulous Digital.
‘A footman is dispatched to get it from the local town of Ballater.’
Pizza
Kate revealed that she prefers to have bacon as a topping rather than ‘spicy pepperoni’ on her pizza (pictured at Islington community garden in 2019)
On a visit to a community garden in Islington in 2019, Kate was left stumped when a schoolgirl asked her if the Queen had ever eaten pizza.
‘That’s such a good question, I don’t know,’ she responded. ‘Maybe next time I see her shall I ask?’
The uncertainty was lifted by Darren McGrady who told MailOnline that pizza was not a dish he ever served the Queen.
He said: ‘I cooked for The Queen for eleven years and never served her pizza once.
‘The Queen didn’t even have it on the menu when we were in Palermo, Sicily on HMY Britannia. The chefs had to go ashore after royal dinner to try it.’
However, the chef to the stars went on to reveal that the popular Italian snack was a favourite with the Queen’s grandchildren – Prince William and Prince Harry.
He added: ‘I didn’t start really cooking pizzas until I moved to Kensington Palace. William and Harry would have had it every night if Nanny had let them. They loved it.’
Kate also admitted to indulging in the treat revealing that she prefers to have bacon as a topping rather than ‘spicy pepperoni’.
Sticky Toffee Pudding
Darren McGrady revealed that the Princess of Wales’ favourite dessert is sticky toffee pudding
The Princess of Wales and mother-of-three’s favourite dessert is the humble school canteen classic – sticky toffee pudding, according to former royal chef Darren McGrady.
Speaking to Delish, he revealed his recipe that was served at Buckingham Palace, which involves coating chopped dates with baking soda.
The dessert was also enjoyed by the Queen while she was staying at Sandringham or Balmoral
He would then melt Muscovado sugar to make the sticky-sweet glaze before adding the cake batter of eggs, butter, flour and sugar which he would mix with the liquid date combination, then steaming it for an hour.
The classic dessert is not only enjoyed by Kate and Darren added: ‘The Queen loved this at Sandringham when it was really cold outside, and when she was at Balmoral, and the rest of the royal family did too.’
Scrambled eggs
In his 2006 book On Royalty, Jeremy Paxman claimed that Charles demanded seven eggs to be boiled for him a day – a claim which Clarence House later declared to be untrue
While many senior royals are said to enjoy an egg-centred breakfast, the family’s relationship with eggs has not always been easy.
In his 2006 book On Royalty, Jeremy Paxman claimed that Charles demanded seven eggs to be boiled for him a day – only eating one to make sure it was cooked to perfection.
He wrote: ‘Because [Charles’] staff were never quite sure whether the egg would be precisely to the satisfactory hardness, a series of eggs was cooked, and laid out in an ascending row of numbers.’
Charles was forced to hit back at the claims in the Frequently Asked Questions section of the Clarence House website, with one reading: ‘Does The Prince of Wales have seven boiled eggs cooked for his breakfast but only eat one, as claimed in Jeremy Paxman’s book On Royalty?’
Camilla is said to enjoy scrambled eggs for breakfast with Charles’ Gloucestershire estate Highgrove having boasted pedigree chickens and sought-after bespoke eggs
The royal reply said: ‘No, he doesn’t and never has done, at breakfast or any other time.’
Aside from her husband’s love of eggs, Camilla is said to enjoy scrambled eggs for breakfast with Charles’ Gloucestershire estate Highgrove having boasted pedigree chickens and sought-after bespoke eggs.
The Queen would also sometimes indulge in scrambled eggs for breakfast instead of Special K and fresh fruit.
Australian nutritionist Lee Holmes was given a copy of the Queen’s favourite egg recipe which included two unusual ingredients – nutmeg and lemon rind.
She wrote on her website: ‘Ma’am loved to sometimes start the day with a protein packed breakfast and these eggs were tailored to the way that she particularly liked them.’
The eggs would occasionally be served with kippers or with smoked salmon and a grating of truffle.
Spaghetti Bolognese
In an attempt to win over Kate’s heart when they first started dating, William would apparently cook meals for her including spaghetti bolognese
In an attempt to win over Kate’s heart when they first started dating, William would apparently cook meals for her including spaghetti bolognese.
Speaking to Mary Berry on A Berry Royal Christmas in 2019, the mother-of-three said: ‘In university days he used to cook all sorts of meals. I think that’s when he was trying to impress me! Things like Bolognese sauce.’
The prince later shared the recipe for his homemade Bolognese sauce for charity cookbook A Taste Of Home, which included 120 meals from the UK’s top chefs and celebrities to mark the 40th anniversary of homelessness charity The Passage.
William, who has been The Passage’s royal patron since 2019, admitted he wasn’t an ‘excellent chef’ but revealed his recipe because he believes ‘sharing makes people who are experiencing homelessness feel right at home’.
Spaghetti carbonara
Celebrity chef Aldo Zilli revealed that Prince George’s favourite food is spaghetti carbonara
Taking after his father’s love for classic Italian dishes, Prince George’s favourite food is apparently spaghetti carbonara.
Celebrity chef Aldo Zilli said he discovered the news from Prince William who is a patron for youth homelessness charity Centrepoint – an organisation for which Aldo is an ambassador.
He told FEMAIL: ‘[William’s] amazing – I’m waiting for the call because apparently his little boy’s favourite is spaghetti carbonara, so I’m waiting for the call to go and cook it for him.’
Cheeky Aldo added: ‘If George has my carbonara, he will never have another one, so I need to go and make it, let’s get the ball rolling, send me to the palace to cook!’
Kate also revealed how her children like to get involved when making pasta dishes, including making pasta sauce from scratch.
The princess was speaking to pupils at Lavender Primary School in 2019 and Matthew Kleiner-Mann, chief executive of the the Ivy Learning Trust, said: ‘She was telling us how much her children love cooking and how they cook for her. They made cheesy pasta the other day.
‘One stirs the flour, one puts the milk and butter in, and they make salads and stuff.’
Roast chicken
Prince Harry proposed while he and Meghan Markle were cooking a roast dinner during a ‘cosy night’ in at Nottingham Cottage
In an interview with Good Housekeeping before her marriage to Prince Harry, actress Meghan Markle said that a roast chicken is her go-to dinner party dish t
