This article was originally published on WHerMoments
Princess Diana continues to live long in our cultural memory — she wasn’t nicknamed “The People’s Princess” for nothing. We’re still fascinated by any detail of her life, which is why fans went nuts when her personal chef spilled the beans on some of the shocking foods she ate every day. Spoiler alert: we may have already included a fiendishly clever clue about her favorite breakfast item in this intro. All will become clear soon enough!
The chef
Darren McGrady, a.k.a. “The Royal Chef,” is — you guessed it — a caterer to the world’s finest diners. Seriously, his credentials are bonkers.
He cooked for the British Royal Family for 15 years, which included stints as the personal chef for Queen Elizabeth II and Diana, Princess of Wales. Oh, and he’s also catered for a host of American presidents including Clinton, Reagan, and both Bushes. The guy’s accomplished.
Going with Diana
McGrady’s stint in Buckingham Palace began in 1982. But after more than a decade cooking up a storm for the Queen and Prince Philip, he decided he wanted a change and took the gig as Diana’s private chef.
At the time, she was living in a spacious home in Kensington Palace and her marriage to Prince Charles was on the rocks. Only those behind the palace’s closed doors would have been privy to what was really going on, though.
Downton Abbey dinners
Regarding the royals, McGrady spilled the tea on their eating habits in a 2017 Marie Claire magazine interview.
He revealed that dinner-times were extremely formal, with the royals arriving for afternoon tea next to a log fire in Buckingham Palace, before putting on their dinner attire. Next, “they’d come down in dressy ball gowns, and sit at the table – like a Downton Abbey dinner.”
A different dinnertime for one
“All the fine china was brought out,” McGrady continued. “At the end of the meal, a bagpipe player would walk around the table.”
Amusingly, he revealed that the Queen Mother was always told dinner would be served at 8:15 p.m., even though it didn’t actually start until 8:30 p.m. Why? She’d never turn up on time, so they wanted to give her some leeway!
The Queen’s favorites
According to McGrady, Queen Elizabeth loved “any food from the estate – so game birds, pheasants, grouse, partridge.” And she positively hated garlic, both in terms of taste and smell.
She was a sucker for chocolate, too — but none of that milk chocolate nonsense. “It has to be dark chocolate,” he explained. “The darker the chocolate, the better.”
The happiest times
After Diana scooped up his services, McGrady stayed with her for four years. In 2017 he told HuffPost, “They were the happiest times at Kensington.”
Being around Diana was a completely different experience than the other royals, according to McGrady. While he’d previously cooked for large, Downton-style banquets, Diana preferred eating in a more intimate setting.
A more relaxed setting
“If she was on her own for lunch, she’d actually come and eat in the kitchen on the countertop,” McGrady explained. “I’d make a tray for her, and I’d just be tidying up the kitchen and things as we were chatting.”
Even if Diana was entertaining, she’d want nothing bigger than a circular table that could seat at most ten.
The Royal conundrum
This idea of the royals being normal behind all the opulence and centuries of tradition seems simultaneously improbable and yet also understandable. Some people believe that royal life’s so privileged that royals exist in a different world to the rest of us.
But others think that, at the end of the day, they’re just people like everyone else. They just live in a palace!
Diana was different
For what it’s worth, McGrady believes that Diana was different from the other royals he’d worked for. Eating lunch with him in the kitchen isn’t something any of them would’ve done, for example.
He also revealed that Diana’s attitude towards him and his staff was different to that shown by her fellow royals.
Reverence for the Queen
For example, McGrady said that all his staff ceased whatever they were doing the second the Queen came into the kitchen.
They were instructed to shift aside their utensils, before moving backwards a few steps and bowing. It was all very formal and regimented, with reverence needing to be demonstrated.
Diana was more down to earth
By contrast, McGrady claimed Diana would enter the kitchen with no fanfare. She was more likely to be found saying, “Darren, I need a coffee — oh, you’re busy. I’ll make it. Do you want one?”
It all paints a picture of the Princess of Wales being much more down to earth than most royals.
Diana preferred lunch parties
Interestingly, in 2016 McGrady told Hello! magazine that when Diana was entertaining, she preferred to invite people over for lunch rather than dinner. She had a couple of motives for doing so. The first was that “she liked an early night."
"She used to get up at six, seven in the morning. She didn’t like going across to the palace for the big dinner parties because they went on too late.”
The media spotlight
Diana’s second reason, though, was a keen insight into a life lived in the spotlight. McGrady claimed she also told him, “I can’t invite men back for dinner because the media would find out and then I’m in real trouble, all sorts of things happen."
"So, whenever I do an event or a charity do or have a friend round, I have to have them for lunch.”
A natural bond
McGrady, to his credit, was quick to point out to Hello! that he was under no illusions about his relationship with Diana. He knew that he was a hired hand and not truly her pal.
But he did still feel that they enjoyed a stronger affinity than many employer/employee relationships. For instance, occasionally she talked to him about her problems.
Diana the joker
“I was always there, so sometimes she’d come in and vent about things she wasn’t happy with,” revealed McGrady. “Other times I’d see her burst into tears, and it was like, ‘What do I say? What do I do?’"
"Other times she told a dirty, risqué joke and you think, ‘I can’t believe Princess Diana just said that!’”
A terrible person in the kitchen
This ability to share a joke is probably why McGrady felt able to tell HuffPost that Diana truly needed him at home. Why? She was an awful cook! He chuckled, “She was just the worst, a terrible person in the kitchen.”
In fact, she was so bad that, when McGrady pre-cooked her meals for the weekend, he would leave instructions on them telling her precisely how long to microwave them for.
William and Harry
While McGrady was at Kensington, he didn’t only cook for Diana — he was also in charge of what Princes William and Harry ate. When he started, William was only 11 years old and Harry was the tender age of nine.
McGrady told the Daily Mail that they loved it when he made them “comfort food.” What did that entail, we hear you ask?
Children’s palettes
“The boys would love to eat things like shepherd’s pie and banana flan,” McGrady revealed. “When I was cooking for the princes, they loved pizza and potato skins stuffed with mozzarella.” On top of that, they also adored fish fingers.
It all points to something very relatable about the princes’ food favorites — they may have been royalty, but they were still kids and liked to eat accordingly.
McDonald’s
The princes also loved something else — a brand of food a million miles away from McGrady’s gourmet cooking.
In 2017 McGrady told Marie Claire magazine, “I remember the princess came into the kitchen one day and said, ‘Cancel lunch for the boys, I’m taking them out, we’re going to McDonald’s.’” Yes, they liked fast food, too!
Kids love a Happy Meal
McGrady replied, “Oh my God, your royal highness, I can do that, I can do burgers.” But Diana then admitted that there was something extra about McDonald’s that the princes were keen on.
She said, “No, it’s the toy they want.” That’s right, even royalty wants a Happy Meal every now and again.
Diana’s favorite breakfast
In terms of Diana’s favored foods, McGrady once revealed on his YouTube channel that she was a sucker for some old-fashioned Heinz baked beans.
He said, “I used to cook beans for breakfast at Buckingham Palace and Princess Diana loved them.” Alongside her baked beans, Diana would often have a pink grapefruit, orange juice and coffee.
The secret behind baked beans
“She’d actually eat a whole tin of beans for breakfast,” McGrady explained. “Sounds crazy, but when you think about it, there’s only seven grams of sugar in the English-style baked beans. They’re rich in protein, high in fiber, very low in fat.
So, they’re perfect for her to eat that really big carb boost ready for going to the gym and doing a workout.”
U.K. vs U.S. – the baked bean controversy
Unfortunately for McGrady, though, the British attitude to baked beans isn’t quite the same as across the pond. After he left the royals and moved to the U.S. to continue his career, he made the mistake of assuming that Americans also love the tomato sauce-laden breakfast staples.
It didn’t exactly go over well.
The cardinal sin
McGrady confessed, “I remember cooking for a family when I first came over here, and I made the cardinal sin of serving baked beans for breakfast like it was the norm. They didn’t eat them.” Maybe the American disdain is because U.S. baked beans have a much thicker sauce and include brown sugar and pork molasses.
The U.K. take’s less heavy-duty and more suitable for breakfast time.
The healthy eater
Indeed, her love of baked beans was emblematic of Diana’s eating habits as a whole. According to McGrady, she generally shunned unhealthy meals and had a particular aversion to eating carbohydrates.
If that wasn’t possible, she’d reportedly joke with McGrady, “You take care of the fats, I’ll take care of the carbs at the gym.”
Having lamb with Clint Eastwood
One of Diana’s favorite foods was the humble stuffed pepper, and she’d generally avoid red meat.
The only times she’d venture into that territory would be when she was having company over and, even then, she’d specifically ask McGrady to make lamb. In fact, he remembered her doing just that when Hollywood icon Clint Eastwood dined with her.
Eggs Suzette
Another favorite was Eggs Suzette, which Diana reportedly had for lunch multiple times per week.
On his YouTube channel, McGrady described it as “a baked potato scooped out with wilted spinach in the bottom and a poached egg on top. Then a little hollandaise sauce, a tiny amount, with some potatoes piped around the edges.” Yum!
Bread and butter pudding
When it came to dessert, Diana loved a quintessential English favorite: bread and butter pudding. It’s been said that the U.K. version of this treat is like a U.S. bread pudding mixed with a crème brûlée.
McGrady recalled that she would only indulge when the princes were there and would always limit herself to a fairly modest slice.
Keeping her healthy habits to herself
Diana didn’t necessarily want to push her food preferences on her growing princes, though. McGrady revealed, “We used to trick the boys. We used to feed them roast potatoes and roast chicken but take the skin off.”
Diana’s potatoes would be more health-conscious, parboiled and thrown together with paprika and egg whites.
The ruse worked
McGrady continued, “She’d cut out the fat, so it was always poached chicken, no skin, no fatty potatoes.” By contrast, the princes would be eating chicken so rich that when they bit into it, fatty juices would dribble from their lips!
All in all, the ruse worked, as William and Harry believed they were tucking into the same dish as their mother.
Tricking Oprah
Incredibly, her children weren’t the only ones who’d have the wool pulled over their eyes by Diana — she even enlisted McGrady to trick famous guests such as Oprah Winfrey.
When she and Oprah were tucking into his delicious tomato mousse, Oprah reportedly asked, “Diana, how do you stay so slim eating rich food like this?”
A fat-free version
McGrady said the bashful princess replied, “I just eat small portions and work out.” In reality, though, Diana wasn’t eating the same thing as Oprah.
Her mousse was a fat-free version created specially, while Oprah was enjoying the real deal, made with heavy cream, mayo, and sour cream. McGrady chuckled, “Diana never did tell her the truth.”
A history of bulimia
McGrady was also able to offer some insight into what prompted Diana to turn to a healthy diet. It wasn’t always her way — after all, the princess had earlier suffered from bulimia.
A 1992 biography by Andrew Morton claimed that the condition took hold following Diana’s engagement to Prince Charles.
A decade of struggle
The biography was actually based on recordings made by Diana, and she was heard saying, “The bulimia started the week after we got engaged and would take nearly a decade to overcome."
"My husband put his hand on my waistline and said, ‘Oh, a bit chubby here, aren’t we?’” And that triggered off something in me…”
A secret disease
During her infamous interview with Martin Bashir in 1995, Diana addressed the topic candidly. She said, “I had bulimia for a number of years. And that’s like a secret disease."
"You inflict it upon yourself because your self-esteem is at a low ebb, and you don’t think you’re worthy or valuable.”
The vicious cycle
“You fill your stomach up four or five times a day — some do it more — and it gives you a feeling of comfort,” the princess continued.
“It’s like having a pair of arms around you, but it’s temporarily, temporary. Then you’re disgusted at the bloatedness of your stomach, and then you bring it all up again.”
Pretend the whole way through
Diana admitted that she kept her bulimia a secret from the other royals, as she felt a strong sense of guilt.
“The thing about bulimia is your weight always stays the same, whereas with anorexia you visibly shrink,” she added. “So, you can pretend the whole way through. There’s no proof.”
We changed everything
When Diana came clean with everyone at the palace, McGrady sprang into action. He told Marie Claire, “We changed everything. I threw out my Buckingham Palace recipe book and got into healthy eating…"
"It wasn’t until she confronted it, and everyone put two and two together, that she started really healthy eating…”
The right place at the right time
All in all, McGrady remembered his time with Diana and her young princes very fondly. “I was just honored to be in the right place at the right time and watch William and Harry grow up,” he told Hello! magazine.
“She absolutely adored the two of them. She would be so thrilled right now with both of them.”