A Cheshire chef who cooked for the Queen and Prince Philip at Buckingham Palace has revealed the Royals' favourite meals.
Adam Steele was just 21 when he moved to London to work for the Royal Family. His next venture will see him head up The Vault, a new restaurant set to open in Alsager, Cheshire.
The chef told Cheshire Live that the twenty years he has spent cooking at Michelin starred venues and for royalty are inspiring the food on the new menu.
Adam, who grew up in south Cheshire, became a chef after the local pub where he wished dishes offered him a full-time job. He then worked in Ibiza, where he became a head chef at the age of just 20.
"When I came back, my plan was to work somewhere here for the winter and then go back," he said.
"Just on the off chance, I sent a CV to Buckingham Palace, and before you know it, I got something back. I went through the process of getting in there, security checks and everything, and I took that job."
He said even after being a head chef previously, working for the Royals make you "realise that you know nothing" and you have to start "at the bottom".
"I had one chef’s jacket when I started working there. I’d go home at the end of my shift, wash my jacket, put it in the tumble dryer and iron it ready every morning," Adam said.
"It was amazing, it was a lovely place to work, but you had to be on top of your game, as you’d expect."
Adam said he was working among chefs who had worked at the Ritz, the Savoy and other high-end establishments.
"Whatever section you were on, whoever you were working with, you’re learning something new everyday from highly trained chefs," he said.
"I was learning from great people, and soaked it up like a sponge."
The Queen has a special nickname among the chefs, Adam explained.
"We used to refer to the Queen as ‘the boss’. The way that it works is that you travel around. The Palace is almost their office job, they’re there five days a week, and then they go to Windsor at the weekend, that’s where they relax.," he said.
"So you’d be cooking at the Palace for up to a thousand people, you’d be doing that in the week and then you’d be cooking at the weekend for just the two of them."
Prince Philip would make his own requests, Adam recalled.
He said: "He would come through and hand you a book from Heston Blumenthal and say he wanted a take on this dish. It was great, it really was an experience, but like I say it just becomes work.
"Obviously, she’s the Queen, and the first time you see her you’re starstruck, but then after a while, you’re just listening to the boss and she’s telling you, this is how I like things, and that’s what you’ll get."
Adam also told CheshireLive about the Queen's favourite dishes. He said they like "filets de sole Saint-Germain, that came on the menu quite a lot".
However, he added: "the most peculiar one I saw was a venison curry".
After leaving Buckingham Palace, Adam went on to work at Peckforton Castle and a Michelin Pub of the Year in Oxford, before eventually taking a chef's job at Caster's of Cheshire.
The Vaults will be the third venue opened by Brad Lancaster, 25, who also owns the Caster's restaurants in Congleton and Alsager.
The restaurant, with interiors designed by Real Housewives of Cheshire star Dawn Ward, will be a place people can "feel comfortable, no matter who they are", Brad said.
Brad, who was just 21 when he opened his first restaurant, has previously worked for Gordon Ramsay in London.
He said he first applied "for a laugh" while he was in college but his application was rejected because of his age.
" They said ‘wait ‘til you’re 18 and get back in touch'," he said.
"When I was 17, I emailed Kim Woodward, the head chef there, who is also from Crewe. She asked when I was 18, I said ‘in five weeks’, and she told me I could start then. I worked there for a year and a half, and by the end of it I was a very tired man."
The Vault will occupy the old Barclays Bank building on Crewe Road, Alsager, which has been vacant for three years.
It is set to open this summer.
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