The Queen ‘never had pizza’ says former royal chef Darren McGrady

Though it was high on the menu for Princess Diana and her sons, according to the chef

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Former royal chef Darren McGrady has discussed the diets of the Queen and her family, revealing he never made pizza for Her Majesty.

McGrady was chef to the royals for 15 years, including four years for Princess Diana and sons, Princes William and Harry while they were children.

When speaking to Us Food, he said: “In the years that I cooked at [Buckingham] palace, the Queen never had pizza”.

McGrady added that he didn’t start cooking pizza until he moved to cook at Kensington Palace, where he says it was regularly on the menu.

“I [made] pizza all the time for William,” the 58-year-old recalls.

“In my second cookbook, The Royal Chef at Home, there’s a chicken tikka masala pizza recipe because, he [Prince William] loves Indian food. The pizza combined the two.”

Despite not being a fan of the Italian staple, McGrady says that the Queen never sent a meal back to the kitchen.

In a recent interview with Sydney’s KIIS 106.5 FM, the chef revealed that instead of feeding back on meals, Queen Elizabeth would write a note to document her dislike.

“She had a little notebook on her desk and she would just put a note in there saying ‘I don’t want this again’ or something like that,” he said.

High on the 94-year-old’s list of likes during McGrady’s tenure were dark chocolate and game, according to the chef.

“Even more so if [the game was] from off the estate – whether it was salmon, deer from Balmoral or maybe some venison from Sandringham,” the food expert told Us Food.

[Rex Features]

McGrady now runs a catering business in Texas and has written several books about his time working for the Queen and her family. He worked for Princess Diana and her sons until she passed away in August 1997, after being involved in a road accident in a tunnel in Paris.

In the interview with Sydney’s KIIS, McGrady said he recalls having dinner ready for the Princess on the night of her death.

“I was there, I had the food for dinner waiting for her to return. It was a horrible, horrible time”, he said.