Prince William and Kate Middleton enjoy an icecream every now and then, while the Princess's favourite dessert is a sticky toffee pudding. Photo / AP
Prince William and Kate Middleton enjoy an icecream every now and then, while the Princess's favourite dessert is a sticky toffee pudding. Photo / AP
You might think the royal family sits down to dine banquet-style every day with all sorts of fancy foods on the menu.
But the royals are more likely to partake in down-to-earth dishes and even takeaways like fish and chips while they’re out and about, reports the Daily Mail UK.
We all know King Charles loves a quiche, and is a big fan of organic foods and farming, while Princess Kate likes to do her own groceries and her favourite dessert is a humble sticky toffee pudding.
Let them eat quiche: The palace published its own royal recipe for the coronation. Photo / The Royal Household
Scrambled eggs
We all know the King loves a coronation quiche - but his wife Queen Camilla is said to enjoy scrambled eggs for breakfast.
And the late Queen Elizabeth herself liked to swap out her Special K and fruit for scrambled eggs every now and then.
Australian nutritionist Lee Holmes revealed that the Queen’s favourite egg recipe featured 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 sometimes be paired with smoked salmon or kippers and topped with a sprinkle of grated truffle for extra flavour.
Spaghetti bolognese
What Kiwi household doesn’t feature “spag bol” as a regular on the dinner menu? The simple dish is apparently the go-to for Prince William as well - he even cooked it to impress Princess Kate when they first started dating.
William has admitted he’s “not an excellent chef” - but he did share his recipe for charity cookbook A Taste Of Home. And young Prince George seems to have inherited his dad’s love of Italian food, as his favourite dish is reportedly spaghetti carbonara.
And George’s mum Kate has revealed his siblings also like to get involved in making pasta, including sauce from scratch. When she spoke to pupils at Lavender Primary School in 2019, the Ivy Learning Trust chief executive later revealed that “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.”
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle talk about their engagement during an interview in London.
In 2017, the couple revealed in a Radio 1 interview that they like to order a curry and watch Homeland or Game of Thrones.
Kate and William disclosed that, like many homes across the UK, the pair love to sit in front of the TV and order a takeaway curry.
When host Scott Mills asked if their local curry place ever thought an order for the royals might be a prank, William explained that “it doesn’t usually get ordered to the palace to be honest, normally someone goes and picks it up”.
And Kate enjoys making curry at home but has to adjust the spice levels for each family member’s preference. In 2019, she revealed Princess Charlotte is “pretty good” with spice, but her siblings “have a portion with no spice”.
She said to William, “Yours is medium, and I quite like it hot. Still, Charlotte is pretty good with heat.”
Prince William eats a "dosa" (rice pancake) as his wife Princess Kate watches during a visit to India in 2016. Photo / AP
Pizza
In 2019, a royal fan asked Kate if the Queen had ever eaten pizza - a question that left the Princess of Wales stumped. But the Queen’s chef Darren McGrady later told MailOnline that he had never served the Queen pizza.
But it was a hit with her grandchildren William and 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.”
And Kate herself is partial to a pizza, preferring bacon as a topping to “spicy pepperoni”.
Fish and chips
Like every good Brit (and Kiwi), the royals can’t go past a good old fish and chips.
In fact, it’s one of Queen Camilla’s favourite foods - she told her son, food writer Tom Parker Bowles for You magazine, “That smell ... you cannot beat proper fish and chips.”
Fish and chips were also a favourite with William and Kate during their university days when they were “regular customers” at Anstruther Fish Bar. They recently returned to the town for a “trip down memory lane” in 2021, ordering deep-fried haddock and eating it on the pier before going back for icecream.
Queen Elizabeth enjoyed fish and chips while on holiday in Scotland, with an insider revealing she would “treat herself” to the takeaway and send a footman to get it for her.
Queen Camilla tucks into some fish and chips. Photo / Getty Images
Former royal chef Darren McGrady revealed that the treat was an afternoon tea staple for the monarch and she never left any of it uneaten, saying, “Now the chocolate biscuit cake is the only cake that goes back again and again and again every day 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.”
And the cake was a firm favourite with her grandsons Harry and William as kids - William even chose the flavour for one of his wedding cakes at his wedding to Princess Kate in 2011.
Chefs made a supersized version of the recipe from 1700 biscuits and 17kg of chocolate.
Princess Kate’s favourite dessert is the humble sticky toffee pudding, McGrady revealed.
He told Delish that when making the treat at Buckingham Palace, he would coat chopped dates in baking soda before melting muscovado sugar for the sticky glaze, then whipping up a batter of eggs, butter, flour and sugar to add to the dates. He would then steam the pudding for one hour.
McGrady added that the Queen loved this staple dessert during the winter.
“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.”
