‘Why I had to prepare 150 plates of food for the Queen ‘
COOKING for the Queen means that everything has to be perfect as former royal chef Darren McGrady well knows.
In fact Darren, who worked for the royals for 15 years and cooked at Buckingham Palace, Sandringham and Balmoral, has revealed that when it came to banqueting events he had to prepare no less than 150 plates of food for Her Majesty.
Speaking Coffee Friend, Chef McGrady said: “There were no food tasters, no.
“Some Royals had their food prepared separately away from guests at big banquet events.
“However, with the Queen, we would prepare 150 plates and the Queen’s page would come in and pick one at random.
“That way, if you were to tamper with the food you would have to tamper with all of them.
“From our perspective, it also meant we had to get the same standard across every plate, not knowing which one the Queen would be eating.”
When it came to picking a dish to serve, Darren said cooks went through a ‘regimented’ process.