The Duchess of Sussex will learn to cook from Clare Smyth in her Netflix show. Photo / Netflix
The Duchess of Sussex has invited her royal wedding chef to teach her to cook in the new series of her Netflix show.
The Duchess – whose programme With Love, Meghan, begins its second series on Tuesday – will learn from Clare Smyth, the professional chef who catered at her wedding to Prince Harry.
In one episode, Smyth will fly to America to spend the day with the Duchess as one of the guest stars across eight new episodes.
The pair will visit a fish market and cook “very healthy poached halibut with seasonal vegetables and bone broth”, with Parker House bread rolls.
She is the only guest across two series of the Netflix show to have a clear link with the Duchess’ life in the royal family, in a rare reference to the positive side of life in Britain.
Meghan lived in the UK for a little over two years – during which her wedding to Prince Harry took place – living first at Kensington Palace and then Frogmore Cottage in Windsor, and giving birth to Prince Archie.
She has since spoken frequently about the challenges she experienced in Britain, including in an interview with Oprah Winfrey, US magazines and a six-part Netflix series.
Smyth catered the evening reception for the Sussexes’ 2018 wedding at Frogmore House, in which she brought her own twist on the roast chicken Meghan cooked for Harry on the night he proposed.
The Michelin-starred chef, who runs the Core restaurant in Notting Hill, west London, has kept in touch with the Duchess, who invited her to appear on With Love, Meghan.
The first series of the programme received largely negative reviews and was awarded two stars by the Telegraph, which called it an “exercise in narcissism”.
The show debuted in the streaming service’s Top Ten programmes during the week of release, but did not break into the top 300 of Netflix’s most-watched shows during the first half of this year, despite heavy promotion and global press coverage.
The second series, which was filmed concurrently, launches on Netflix on Tuesday. Guest stars include World Central Kitchen chef Jose Andres, television chefs David Chang and Christina Tosi, podcaster Jay Shetty, Queer Eye stylist Tan France, and model Chrissy Teigen.
Makeup artist Daniel Martin, businesswoman and podcaster Jamie Kern Lima, Pilates teacher Heather Dorak, are all friends of the Duchess and will also appear on the series.
In the first series, Meghan referred to life in the royal family and talked about healing from being broken.
Smyth will provide the first direct link to the Duchess’ time living in Britain, when she dined at Core and subsequently asked the chef to work on the royal wedding.
The evening wedding menu included potato and roe followed by roast chicken stuffed with sage and onion.
Smyth told Hello! magazine that the Duke and Duchess “had a lot of pressure on them” and treated her restaurant “like a home”.
She said: “They’re really lovely people and we had an awful lot of fun working with them. Both of them love food, and Meghan is passionate about restaurants. We have seen them since and stayed in touch.”
The chef told the Sunday Times that the Duchess had “personally reached out” to ask her to appear on the Netflix show “right from the beginning, but we couldn’t get the timings to work” until the second series.
“The idea was to teach Meghan how to do fine dining and what goes into that, rather than just something you can make at home.
“It was about showing her that level of detail and giving her tips on presentation and skills … she was really interested in that.”
Prince Harry appeared briefly in the first series, but is not expected to be on screen in the second. He is mentioned in the trailer, when the Duchess tells Andres that her husband does not like lobster.
Sign up to Herald Premium Editor’s Picks, delivered straight to your inbox every Friday. Editor-in-Chief Murray Kirkness picks the week’s best features, interviews and investigations. Sign up for Herald Premium here.