For some reason, reading about the 89-year-old Queen Elizabeth’s diet made me sad. Like, can we just let Queen Elizabeth II LIVE? Let her do her thing. If she wants a whiskey-and-chocolate nightcap, God bless. At some point, at some age, we should just stop expecting certain people to talk about their diets and such. To be fair, People Magazine didn’t speak to the Queen or one of the courtiers about the royal diet. No, they just spoke to one of her former chefs. And God help me, I found it fascinating:
Don’t mess with the Queen’s food. Though a lot has changed during the 63 years and 7 months that Queen Elizabeth has ruled, one thing has stayed consistent: her taste buds.
“The royal table hasn’t changed much at all in 63 years,” former palace chef Darren McGrady tells PEOPLE. “One thing about Her Majesty is continuity and the same menus, just allowing new ones to creep in gradually.”
As Britain’s longest-reigning monarch, the Queen and her family were “pioneers of modern day food trends and ‘farm to table’” dining, notes McGrady. “All through her reign she has insisted on food in season. She is happy to eat strawberries from her garden five days in a week at Balmoral in the summer, but never in January.”
While the Queen is entertaining, she eats meals “heavy in butter and cream” but when eating alone, she sticks to simple meals like grilled chicken with salad to keep her slim figure.
“She’s very disciplined,” says the chef who also cooked for Princess Diana. “No starch is the rule. No potatoes, rice or pasta for dinner.”
And although she is invested in a healthy diet, “sadly the Queen is not a foodie,” says McGrady. “She eats to live.”
Well… it might be true that she doesn’t do starches for dinner (NO POTATOES?!), I’ve heard over and over again that the Queen likes a tipple. She enjoys a cocktail before dinner and after, sources have claimed before. The Queen Mum was like that too, so QEII is following in her mother’s footsteps. I’m not saying that the Queen is wrong to enjoy her cocktails, I’m just saying… let’s stop with the “Queen is so disciplined about her intake” nonsense. And all of that butter and cream… it’s nice every now and then, but I couldn’t eat like that regularly. As I get older, cream sauces do tend to make me sick, so there’s that. I guess I won’t be invited to Buckingham Palace anytime soon.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
British potatoes are the best ! How could you not want to eat them ?!
Jersey Royals glazed with melted butter, you don’t need anything else!
Cheshire new potatoes with melted butter! YUM!!!!!
The Queen is 89. She’s doing something right. Eating to live is not a bad thing.
Love the red jacket & matching hat.
Lucky her to have such a choice. Many of her subjects do not.
Sometimes I wish I ate to live, I think it would make my life a lot simpler. Or maybe I’d be obsessed with something else instead, who knows.
I’ve always read that she is very disciplined about what she eats.
She looks good for 89 and seems very healthy, so good for her.
Lol, I am not a foodie and I don’t know what has starches in it and what doesn’t.
Carbs are basically starchy things like rice, potatoes, bread. The latest diet advice in the UK is a plate of 1/4 Carbs, 1/4 Protein (meat, eggs, cheese) and half Vegetables. Apparently we have all been eating too many carbs in the west which is why we have an obesity epidemic. 1st world problem, some people aren’t eating at all and are malnourished. It’s a strange, sad world.
I used to do health fairs and had a traveling exhibit of food portions. People were aghast at how small they are! If I remember correctly . . .
Meat: Deck of cards — use Tarot as a guide; they’re bigger. 🙂
Butter: Two dice
Peanut butter: Golf ball
Vegetables: lightbulb
Pancake: CD*
Pasta: Computer mouse
*This is an American pancake which is not the same as British.
Yeah you’re right, proper portion sizes are tiny, I seem to remember a portion of cheese should be the size of a small matchbox as well. Plate sizes have a bearing too, something about never going beyond the central 9″ diameter. We are all encouraged by food manufacturers and retailers to eat far too much for the sake of their profit margins.
So the Queen likes her cocktails, just like her mother did? Considering that the Queen Mum lived to 102 and the Queen is apparently healthy at 89, I’d say they were doing something right!
Yeah but you need to remember these women didn’t have to do 12 hour shifts in factories or anything like that. They can concentrate on what they eat and healthy habits a lot easier than someone who has to do physical or even grueling mental work 10 hours a day. These women have people to do everything for them. All they have to do is snap their fingers. She’s not in the kitchen trying to make dinner at 5 pm right after work lol.
Very true word. I think not having to do the cooking (or grocery shopping or menu planning) is key. I think the Q does have a pretty heavy sched reviewing “stuff” related to gov’t so she probably does more desk work than most women her age. I also think that growing up while Britain was at war and their was rationing has probably made her more conscious of not wasting food and not being extravagant with out of season food. My mom is 85 and grew up in Canada with rationing of food (though I think Canadians weren’t as badly off in that regard as Britain) and she eats “sparely” and keeps leftovers well past their due date. I think that mindset is probably ingrained somewhat
What is whiskey and chocolate? Is that a drink?
Darren McGrady has a business trading on his royal connections called royal chef
He also has a twitter, website, blog where he shares recipes and recollections of royals.
He isn’t above snarking on them. It’s always funny when he contradicts Victoria Arbiter, Dickie Arbiter former HM press secretary’s daughter, because they were at the palaces during the same era and are now making a living in the USA based upon their royal adjacent association. Victoria tries to stick to the sycophantic palace line and Darren loves to pop that pin cushion!!!
She hates soup too.
No chips and gravy?????
Apparently they royals all avoid garlic, since they’re always having to meet people and don’t want them thinking they have bad breath.
And yes, she’s a disciplined eater. A couple of cocktails a day don’t mean you’re undisciplined. She’s not rail thin, nor was her mother, and I’m sure they both enjoyed their drinks in moderation as they enjoyed their foods. They’re not going for some weird gym bunny/waist trainer/Lilorexic look.
I couldn’t bear having to avoid garlic. Love it.
I think a couple cocktails a day (as opposed to a couple bottles) is fine as her mother’s longevity bears out.
As absolutely she’s not going for a starvation diet or rail thin look. From what I have read she has a very sensible approach to exercise: walking and horseback riding as opposed to gym workouts. She looks lovely.
I avoid onions and garlic whenever I can – I’d only have them at dinner. I hate the mouth feeling of lingering tastes and smells. I want to go home and brush my teeth immediately!
For someone who is “very disciplined”, she’s put on quite a few over the years….