The royal family is renowned for adhering to traditional, healthful diets, and the newborns are no exception. They follow stringent guidelines when it comes to eating meals every day. Darren McGrady, a former royal chef, revealed the one item that’s absent from the menu for the younger ones. “I’ve certainly never seen packaged food with any of the royal babies,” McGrady, who has cooked for Queen Elizabeth , Princess Diana , Prince William and Prince Harry , told Today in an exclusive.
“Why would they buy packaged food when the queen has 20 personal chefs?” McGrady reasoned. From 1982 to 1993, he worked at Buckingham Palace. From 1993 until Princess Diana died in 1997, he worked at Kensington Palace. During the conversation, he recalled that the queen’s Sandringham rural hideaway provided the young princes with their first meals, which were steamed apples and pears. “I thought the royal baby would have a similar diet when he or she began eating solids,” he said, adding that the purees had to be sieved twice to be sure there were no lumps left.
“As they got older, you’d have one chef in the kitchen doing the chicken, one doing the veg, and then it would all be blended together; it was a major operation cooking for them,” he said. Their early meals of pureed banana and custard gave rise to William’s favorite dessert, banana flan. Other popular delicacies that the two princes’ loved were peanut butter and jelly muffins, which they requested after sampling them at Disney World, and chocolate biscuit cake. The chef claimed that although the princes’ nanny made sure the boys ate their Brussels sprouts and broccoli, their palates were typical of any British toddler.
Royal Nannies – Jessie Webb. She was convinced Prince William was too thin and needed feeding up and would fill the nursery fridge with sausages, buns, bacon, and doughnuts, making the chefs feel guilty. Everyone liked her, especially Prince William. pic.twitter.com/dnOMjFWVz2
— George Grant (@RuleBGB) April 5, 2021
“If it was left to the boys, it would be cheeseburgers, pizza, chicken nuggets, and loaded jacket potatoes,” he added. As per the UK Mirror , royal author , Ingrid Seward revealed that Jessie Webb, the prince’s nanny spoiled them when it came to having forbidden food. To make the chefs feel bad, Webb would stock the nursery fridge with doughnuts, bacon, buns, and sausages because she was certain the princes were too skinny and needed to be fed. “Growing boys, she claimed, need meat and potatoes, not pasta and vegetables,” Seward added.
Prince William gives the England squad a pep talk, offering up his youngest son Prince Louis’s advice to eat double portions ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/wS1B8vrqiD
— Kate Mansey (@KateMansey) June 10, 2024
Given his belief that a double-sized breakfast is essential to a successful day, Prince Louis appears to have strayed from royal customs. According to Newsweek , in a recent motivational speech for the England soccer squad before the UEFA Euro 2024, Prince William said his younger son enjoyed a hearty meal. “I was on the school run this morning with the children and I said ‘What should I say to the England team when I see them today?’ The best bit of advice I got was to eat twice the amount you normally would eat. So, I then have visions of you running around with massive great tummies and loads of stitches on the pitch. I think maybe take my youngest’s advice with a pinch of salt particularly around the physio teams,” the Prince of Wales hilariously said.