It is widely believed that the royal family avoid eating shellfish to prevent any possible food poisoning, but royal chef Darren McGrady has debunked the myth, and has a photo to prove it. Taking to Twitter to respond to reports that the Queen does not allow her family to eat certain seafood, Darren shared a picture of a royal menu dating from 1989.
The photo revealed that the Queen dined on soufflé de homard for starters at Windsor Castle, 'homard' being the French word for 'lobster'. Darren tweeted: "Proof that the Royal Family DO actually eat shellfish." It was previously reported that Meghan Markle, the newest member of the royal family, would have to give up eating one of her favourite foods, seafood, upon her marriage to Prince Harry.
The Queen's menu featured lobster to start
Darren spent 11 years working for the Queen at Buckingham Palace, before he moved to Kensington Palace to cook for Princess Diana until her death in 1997. Speaking previously to HELLO!, Darren opened up about his experience, saying that there was always a "huge menu" for the royals to choose from.
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The food the royal family love to eat:
"We used a repertoire of dishes," he said. "It was British and French food. We cooked a lot of traditional French food like halibut on a bed of spinach with a Mornay sauce. All the menus were in French too. I don't know how long that dated back to but even the family dining menu was in French. The Queen speaks fluent French."
Darren also revealed that Her Majesty's favourite dessert is anything with chocolate. "She is absolutely a chocoholic. Anything we put on the menu that had chocolate on, she would pick off the menu. She has a red leather-bound menu book and the menus are all written in there. The chefs pick the menus and she puts a line through the ones that she doesn't want," he explained.
The royals are allowed to eat shellfish, contrary to popular belief
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"Sometimes she'll put a line through all and put something different, like if she was having dinner with Prince Andrew, his favourite was crème brulee with Sandringham oranges. It's like any mum with a son coming home. If Prince William was coming for tea it would be a chocolate biscuit cake. He loved those."
