Tom Parker Bowles has been a food writer and restaurant critic for 24 years. He is also the son of the Queen.
He has, up until now, avoided talking about the royal family, let alone writing about them. But in his latest book he reveals, in detail, their eating habits and gastronomic preferences.
"I knew that I was putting my head into the jaws of a lion, but if I can't do it now, after a quarter of a century of writing about food, when can I do it?" he tells HELLO! in our exclusive interview.
"But, of course, it will be seen in some circles as nepotism," he adds, cheerfully.
Praise for the King and Queen
His book, Cooking and the Crown, fuses history with recipes, including a few of his mother's, and features dishes relating to every monarch from Queen Victoria to King Charles, with over 100 recipes from breakfast to state banquet via high tea.
"It wouldn't have happened without the Palace and the King," he says, describing the monarch as "the kindest, most knowledgeable, lovely man. He is someone you can ask about food and it's like asking an academic.
"He's trodden every corner of his kingdom; he knows farming – he's a farming hero."
Of the King and Queen as a team, he observes: "They're very well suited. They work well together, and we're happy that our mother's happy."
Laid-back upbringing
His mother's role within the royal family has developed organically, which has made it easier for him to adjust to her new status – "although occasionally, when I'm doing a speech and she's there, I'll forget and call her 'Your Highness'" – and Camilla is also adept at moving seamlessly from informal to formal.
"I come from a very laid-back family," says Tom, whose father is retired army officer Andrew Parker Bowles, whom Camilla married in 1973 and divorced in 1995. "We all gather around the table. We all love food. We all love a drink."
Tom enjoyed what he describes as a "lovely, happy English upbringing" in Wiltshire with great food; his mother's speciality was roast chicken. However, he didn't have the easiest adolescence.
© Getty ImagesCharles and Camilla's relationship
In 1995, Camilla's romantic involvement with Charles became public and Tom was thrust into the public eye through association.
He often felt protective of his mother, "especially in the bad days, the mid-Nineties – the aggression of the paparazzi, the screaming, the shouting, and she didn't have a network to protect her. I remember high-speed chases down the M4 that were incredibly dangerous."
Was he ever angry with or resentful towards her? "No. Never, never, never. She has always been – and this is not just PR – such a good mother."
Tom's next book
He's currently toying with the idea of penning his first novel, "a big, old-fashioned adventure story", but there's an obstacle.
"I live on a deadline, so without it, I'll never do it," he says with a resigned but happy smile. "Heaven for me is looking in my diary and seeing a whole blank week apart from a couple of pieces to write and a few meals out."
Cooking and the Crown: Royal Recipes from Queen Victoria to King Charles III is out now, published by Aster, priced £30
To read the full exclusive interview, pick up the latest issue of HELLO! on sale in the UK on Monday. You can subscribe to HELLO! to get the magazine delivered free to your door every week or purchase the digital edition online via our Apple or Google apps.
