King Charles III and Queen Camilla are expected to visit the British Museum to view designs for the national memorial in St James’s Park, according to multiple reports. They will also host an evening reception at Buckingham Palace where guests will receive birthday cards from the King. Anne, Princess Royal will officially open the Queen Elizabeth II Garden in Regent’s Park.
According to Daily Mirror - News, former royal chef Darren McGrady described the Queen as someone who "ate to live rather than live to eat," unlike Prince Philip who was a foodie. McGrady, who served as personal chef to the Queen and Diana, Princess of Wales for 15 years, said her preferred lunch was grilled Dover sole on a bed of wilted spinach or courgette, often with new potatoes. For evening meals, she favoured fillet steak with mushroom whiskey sauce.
But the Queen never was a foodie. She always ate to live rather than live to eat. Prince Philip was the foodie.
McGrady told the press that the Queen had afternoon tea every day, wherever she was. The tea included two types of sandwiches, scones, small cakes, and large cakes such as chocolate biscuit cake, one of her favourites. Chefs at Buckingham Palace would ring Windsor Castle to check what flavour scones the Queen had the day before to avoid repetition. The tea was served with Earl Grey tea, and the Queen used a red leather-bound book for tea-related notes.
He'd want to try any new dishes all the time and got excited about new ingredients, whereas the Queen, if we had a new recipe, she'd have to look at the whole recipe before saying, 'Yes ok let's try it'. But for the most part she stuck to the same dishes week in week out.
Queen Elizabeth enjoyed new potatoes and spinach with her fish.
The late Queen had afternoon tea every day, wherever she was. Whether we were at Buckingham Palace and she was on her own, she had Prince William coming to join her, or she was hosting a garden party for 6,000 people, the Queen loved afternoon tea. I would say it’s probably one of her favourite meals. Certainly, when I was there, she would sit down religiously for tea.
Hot tea has to be hot. The water must be absolutely boiling when poured over the tea, and it has to steep for five minutes. That is the most important part. It’s really, really important that tea is made in a teapot, too.
There had to be two types of sandwiches on the menu. There were scones - one day they would be plain scones, the next day they would be fruit scones with raisins. It was really important the way they alternated. So much so, that the chefs at Buckingham Palace would ring Windsor Castle on a Monday morning and ask what flavour scones the Queen had the day before, just to be sure we didn’t serve the same. I’m not sure what would have happened if we did, but we always checked.
For afternoon tea, there would be small cakes, anything from a mini chocolate eclair to a Queen’s cake, and large cakes too, which we would call a cut of cake, where the Queen could cut a slice of cake. This could be a honey and cream sponge, a fruit cake, or gingerbread. Banana bread, chocolate biscuit cake - one of her favourites - or a chocolate ganache cake. They were served with Earl Grey tea, and that was afternoon tea for the Queen every day.