Queen Elizabeth Probably ‘Never Had Pizza’ in Her Life, Former Royal Chef Claims
It’s next to impossible to imagine someone as polite and proper as Queen Elizabeth tucking into a greasy slice of pizza. Her Majesty is well known for experimenting with different cuisines while traveling abroad and even sampled rat stew once. But what about more conventional quick meals, like pizza?
Former royal chef Darren McGrady worked for the royal family for years and has all the insight into their dining habits. According to him, Queen Elizabeth never sampled pizza on his watch and may have never tried it in her life.
Queen Elizabeth sticks to an eating routine
The queen is stringent on her likes and dislikes. Everything in her day from morning to night must be presented a certain way, including all the foods she eats.
Her Majesty dines four times per day at breakfast, lunch, tea time, and dinner. For breakfast, she typically selects whit toast with marmalade served with hot tea. Lunch consists of a small piece of fish or chicken alongside a salad with garden vegetables. The queen takes her afternoon tea with tiny sandwiches and for dinner, it’s more fish or meat with roasted vegetables on the side.
The monarch studiously avoids starchy sides like pasta. She never eats garlic and limits her sweets and desserts, except for the occasional slice of chocolate pie.
Does Queen Elizabeth ever eat pizza?
Pizza originated from flatbread dishes in Italy but these days, it’s a popular anytime entrée served around the globe. However, you’re not likely to see any pizza boxes floating around Buckingham Palace, McGrady said.
“In the years that I cooked at [Buckingham] palace, the queen never had pizza,” McGrady said, according to US Magazine. “I didn’t start cooking pizza until I moved across to Kensington palace.”
But that wasn’t the case for all senior royals. The longtime royal chef said he frequently made pizza for Princess Diana, Prince William, and Prince Harry while working for them.
“I [made] pizza all the time for William,” McGrady continued. “In my second cookbook, The Royal Chef at Home, there’s a chicken tikka masala pizza [recipe] because he loves Indian food. The pizza combined the two.”
Someone once pranked Queen Elizabeth with a Domino’s delivery
It’s common knowledge that Her Majesty doesn’t eat pizza, which is probably what spurred one prankster to have some delivered right to her doorstep.
The prank happened in June 2019. Food & Wine reported that a Domino’s delivery driver got stopped at Buckingham Palace gates while trying to deliver four cheeseburger pizzas.
“The driver was stopped by two armed police officers who got him to get off his bike and park up,” a source told The Sun. “One of them then radioed through to the control room to check if the Queen had indeed ordered a pizza. The next thing the copper said was ‘Sorry sir, Elizabeth is the name of the Queen — and she lives at Buckingham Palace. I think someone is winding you up.’ The poor guy looked very confused and just rode off.”
The manager of the Domino’s found the whole thing hilarious, saying they “always suspected the Queen was a secret Domino’s fan.”
If the queen was going to try pizza, it would probably be a gourmet homemade option prepared by a royal chef. But the mistaken Domino’s went over well with the police officers on duty that day.
