King Charles III, like many Brits across the country, is what you might describe a fussy eater.
In fact, according to YouGov, a whopping two in five British people would consider themselves picky eaters, but the King’s preferences are perhaps uniquely royal.
But Charles allegedly has an ability to make simple dishes extravagant in order to suit his palate.
Tom Quinn writing in Yes Ma’am – his bestseller about the history of the royal servants – claimed there was a very particular way the monarch likes his eggs cooked for his afternoon tea.
Quinn wrote: ‘He [the King] had never once cooked his own eggs and muffins. Because, like many people, Charles is fussy about how his own eggs are cooked, and because eggs are notoriously difficult to get just right, he insists that six eggs should be cooked so that at least two will be just as he likes them.’
If true, this means if Charles was to enjoy his eggs and muffins every afternoon, the royal kitchen would go through an average 42 eggs a week in order to provide the King with his perfect eggs.
However, the royals have in the past denied this allegation that the King has multiple eggs cooked at once.
Charles is reportedly not just particular about how his eggs are cooked.
Writing in her royal biography The Palace Papers, royal insider Tina Brown claimed that the King travelled with a premixed martini on hand when he was attending dinner parties.
‘Unlike the Queen, who always ate what she was served, the Prince stipulated his menu preferences up-front, and sometimes arrived at dinner with his protection officer bearing a martini premixed and ready to be handed to the butler and served in his own glass,’ Brown wrote.
Away from eggs and martinis, Charles has other interesting eating habits.
Up until a few years ago the King was known to not eat lunch. However, at the request Queen Camilla and doctors, Charles has now started eating a midday meal where he enjoys half an avocado.
Charles also occasionally swaps meats for a plant-based diet to reduce his carbon footprint. He told the BBC in 2021: ‘For years I haven’t eaten meat and fish on two days a week and I don’t eat dairy products on one day a week.’
The King also likes putting his own very unique spin on classic meals.
These fresh takes on popular dishes often involve using game meat – which is known to be a favourite among the royals.
When he was guest editing Country Life in 2018, Charles revealed that he invented a grouse coq au vin and a grouse moussaka which he calls ‘groussaka’.
The magazine also featured his favourite recipe – pheasant crumble pie.
Charles also foregoes English Breakfast tea, preferring to drink Darjeeling tea with honey and milk.
It isn’t just his food that the King is allegedly fussy about.
According to Brown, Charles is accompanied on his travels to meet friends by a truck full of his furniture.
Brown said: ‘When he travelled to stay at friends; country houses, a truck arrived the day before, bringing his bed furniture and even pictures, which his pampering aide Michael Fawcett ensured would be hung in his allocated bedroom in place of the possessions of his host.’
Charles isn’t the only royal who has a unique palate when it comes to popular meals.
The late Queen Elizabeth II enjoyed a fish and chips but with the traditional haddock or cod swapped for hake.
Similar to cod and haddock but softer and with a more mild flavour, hake is usually used in curries and soups rather than in fish and chips.
Darren McGrady, the Queen Elizabeth’s personal chef from 1982 until 1993, revealed in a YouTube video how the Queen liked her fish and chips cooked – and it wasn’t only her choice of fish which departed from the usual ingredients.
Darren said: ‘The Queen wouldn’t really eat the fish fried in all that crispy rich batter – a little bit too much for her. She preferred a more refined fish and chips.
‘The chips were all cut the same length – every one the same length, perfect rectangles.’
So, instead of deep-frying the hake in batter, it was dunked in flour, egg yolk and butter before it was rubbed with panko crusting and popped into the oven at 200C for ten minutes.
While most Brits might enjoy their fish and chips with a healthy dollop of tartare sauce and a side of mushy peas the Queen’s choice of condiment was a little more off-menu.
She enjoyed homemade tarragon hollandaise sauce made of egg yolks, lemon, tarragon and clarified butter with salt and pepper as well.
Presentation of the dish was also crucial. The perfectly symmetrical chips had to be stacked into a square.
Then the hollandaise sauce was drizzled around the side of the plate before a flower was placed on top of the fish for decoration.
Answering the question of whether the Queen did eat fish and chips, Darren said: ‘Sort of I guess.
‘I love the combination of flavours in this dish and we’d serve this a lot when the Queen had guests for lunch.’
