Queen Elizabeth II is said to eatburgers only if they are served without a bun.- That's because she must always use a knife and fork, according to the former palace chef Darren McGrady.
- "Her Majesty's Victorian upbringing dictates that the only thing you would pick up and eat with your fingers is afternoon tea," McGrady told Insider.
Queen Elizabeth II's former chef Darren McGrady baffled royal fans last month when he said she never ate pizza.
McGrady, who worked at Buckingham Palace from 1982 until 1993, said during an interview with Us Weekly that the popular dish was never on the menu during his time in the royal kitchen.
Insider spoke with the former royal chef about the revelation — and it turns out it isn't the only common
"Eleven years at the palace and we never served pizza at all, not even at receptions," McGrady told Insider.
"The menus at Buckingham Palace are very traditional French, which wouldn't lean towards having pizza on it.
"Her Majesty's Victorian upbringing dictates that the only thing you would pick up and eat with your fingers is afternoon tea."
The Queen avoids all fast food, and if she were to ever request takeout food, McGrady says, the royal chefs would make their own version.
She makes an exception for burgers, however, he said, so long as they are served without a bun.
"It always tickled me at Balmoral, we would make our own burgers," he said, referring to the
"They would shoot deer, and we would do venison burgers. There'd be gorgeous cranberry and everything stuffed into them, but we never set buns out."
"They would have burgers, but not the buns. So they would eat it with their knife and fork," he added.
The royal family changes things up during summer vacation
The monarch's daily diet usually includes fruit, chicken, afternoon tea, and salmon from the grounds of Balmoral for dinner, Insider's Ali Millington previously reported.
The royal family usually changes things up for its summer vacation, when a small group will gather in the hills to have a barbecue instead of the typical sit-down dinner the
The royal chefs were usually never informed what the family's plans were until afternoon tea, however — causing a mad rush in the kitchen, according to McGrady.
McGrady says the chefs would make two batches of dessert: one served on silver and the other in reusable containers in case they decided to eat outside.
"It was always a mad rush when the Duke of Edinburgh would come down to the kitchen and say, 'We're going to have a barbecue,'" he said.
"The table had to be set and everything was served on silver, so when it came to making the chocolate mousse we'd actually make double.
"Mousse that could go into silver dishes, so that if the royal family were in for dinner that night, we weren't caught out and could serve it at the royal table."
He added: "But at the same time, if they were going out to the hills, we had to make the mousse in plastic tupperware containers. We could never send silver out to the hills — we'd be in so much trouble."