A former royal chef had opened up about the 'major operation’ of feeding ‘royal babies,’ sharing that all royal youngsters are banned from eating 'packaged foods' for a very understandable reason.
Life for royal children is understandably very different to that of your average kid. While they may still enjoy the same family holidays and feel the same dread on Monday mornings before school, by being born into the royal line of succession, they've inherited a lifestyle many of us will simply never understand, let alone experience.
While there are many obvious differences separating many children's lives from that of Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis', there are some smaller differences that we may not think about. Namely, it's their meal times that stand out.
That's because Darren McGrady, a former royal chef who worked for Queen Elizabeth, Princess Diana, Prince William and Prince Harry, has revealed that royal babies have long been banned from eating certain foods. And while it sounds extreme, the reason is pretty understandable.
In an interview unearthed by HELLO! Magazine, Darren McGrady shared that all royal babies were banned from eating 'prepackaged foods' when he worked at the Palace and likely still are, a fact that made preparing their meals 'a 'major operation.'
He told TODAY.com back in 2013, "I’ve certainly never seen packaged food with any of the royal babies. Why would they buy packaged food when the queen has 20 personal chefs?"
In place of canned and plastic-packaged baby food, the chef would prepare homemade baby food recipes for the royal children, often using steamed apples and pears or banana and custard to create purees for the youngsters. He shared that these purees had to be sieved twice to make sure that there were no lumps in the mixture.
"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," he added. "It was a major operation cooking for them."
When the kids got to an age where they had been weaned off of liquid foods and baby purees, which is a simpler task with the best baby-led weaning foods, the royal kitchen had an easier task at meal times. If it was up to the young Princes William and Harry, Darren revealed that the menu would have been filled only with 'fast food' options and 'British comfort foods.'
"If it was left to the boys, it would be cheeseburgers, pizza, chicken nuggets, and loaded jacket potatoes," he said, adding in a later interview with HELLO! that Diana also indulged in less royal-sounding foods.
He told the publication, "She wasn't strict at all. She let them be boys, young boys! There was always a battle between her and Nanny. Nanny would say, 'No, they're eating their dinner, they're having cabbage.' And the Princess would say, 'No, if they're with me and they want loaded potato skins and fried chicken then they can have that. And if they don't eat it and they still want pudding, they can have that too!' She was much more relaxed than Nanny."
