Over the summer, Queen Elizabeth II’s former royal chef spilled some interesting tea on QEII’s drinking habits. Apparently, the Queen is forever day-drunk, drinking four or more alcoholic beverages every day. She starts drinking in the middle of the day and doesn’t stop until after dinner. I mean… she’s in her 90s. She’s lived this long as a lush, let her live out the rest of her years as a lush too, that’s how I feel about it. Anyway, the same former chef – Darren McGrady – has given a lengthy tell-all interview to Marie Claire about the eating habits of the Windsors. This is the best gossip ever, because it involves two of my favorite subjects in the world: food and royalty. You can read the full piece here. Some highlights:

The royals are more relaxed in Balmoral: “Balmoral is where the royal family really let their hair down. They relax and have fun. You see them all the time. At Buckingham Palace, the Queen was too busy and the kitchens too far from her apartment—so we never saw her. At Balmoral, we’d see her all the time. They were much more relaxed and had more free time. Philip would cook out on the grill. He’d come down to the kitchens and discuss what food we’d have: ‘Do we have any salmon that any of the family have caught? The queen’s been picking strawberries with Princess Margaret, let’s have those for dinner.'”

Dinner was always formal: “They would come in for afternoon tea by the log fire in outdoor clothes, and then they’d all change for dinner. They’d come down in dressy ball gowns, and sit at the table—like a Downton Abbey dinner. All the fine china was brought out. At the end of the meal, a bagpipe player would walk around the table.”

Post-bulimia, Diana was really into eating healthy: “She started really healthy eating…she liked dishes like stuffed bell peppers and stuffed eggplant—she loved fish..The only red meat she would eat was lamb. And that was when she was entertaining. She’d never eat beef.”

The Queen’s favorite food: “The Queen loves to eat any food from the estate—so game birds, pheasants, grouse, partridge—she loves those to be on the menu. But of course, she loves chocolate. That was her favorite, and it has to be dark chocolate. The darker the chocolate, the better.”

The Queen hates garlic: “The queen would never have garlic on the menu. She hated the smell of it, she hated the taste of it.”

The Queen eats out of tupperware: “People always say, ‘Oh, the Queen must eat off gold plates with gold knives and forks.’ Yes, sometimes…but at Balmoral she’d eat fruit from a plastic yellow tupperware container.”

The Queen’s breakfast: “Breakfast was very simple for Her Majesty. Some Kellogg’s cereal from a plastic container, which she’d serve herself. And some Darjeeling tea.”

[From Marie Claire]

Is it weird that I feel strangely good about my breakfast as compared to the Queen’s breakfast? I eat yogurt and a banana for breakfast – I can’t function well enough to deal with cereal that early in the morning. But I am shocked that the Queen’s breakfast is so… ordinary? As for the Queen not liking garlic… garlic is amazing. I get that some people don’t love the smell of it, but I love it, and onions too. Why do I feel like the Queen’s food is probably pretty bland overall? Then again, it works for her – you don’t live to be 91 years old just by getting pickled in gin, day after day.

Photos courtesy of WENN.