A Former Royal Chef Called The Windsor's Christmas Dinner Menu 'Boring'

Darren McGrady, a chef who worked for the British royal family from 1982 to 1997, has made quite a side gig out of supplying quotes about his former employers. Although it's been 25 years since he let the Kensington Palace kitchens (and nearly that long since he emigrated to the U.S.), he's never short of a few words on all things relating to the royals and their food preferences.

Over the years, McGrady has dished on how the queen liked her eggs (with lemon and nutmeg), Princess Diana's fondness for juicing (she was an early adopter), William's and Harry's surprisingly plebian food preferences (they preferred PB&Js and fast-food burgers to lark's tongues in aspic — go figure), the peculiar way King Charles had to have his breakfast plums (it's complicated), and even what the queen's corgis ate (real meat, not kibble). He's also weighed in on holiday meals at the palace, although what he has to say on the matter hasn't been all that flattering.

According to MyLondon, McGrady didn't think much of the Christmas dinners served up at Sandringham House in the '80s and '90s. He says the royals would sit down to a big midday meal on Christmas day and on the table would be a salad made with lobster or shrimp, roast turkey, and what he described as "all of your traditional side dishes like parsnips, carrots [and] Brussels sprouts." For dessert, there would be a typically British Christmas pudding with brandy butter. McGrady describes the royal family's meal preferences as "actually boring when it comes to festivities." As he complains, "They didn't do hams or anything, just traditional turkeys," and says that he'd cook a bunch of these birds: three for the queen and the grown-up family members, another for the kids' table in the nursery, and a bunch more to feed 100-plus staff members.

This year will mark the first Christmas without Queen Elizabeth at the palace table, but the 25th one without McGrady in the kitchen (or possibly the 30th, as he seems to have worked solely for Princess Diana from 1993 until her death). Will the royals still be dining on turkey with all of the trimmings, or will they switch things up and order out for Chinese food instead? We don't know for sure, but neither does McGrady, so any critiquing of 2022's Christmas with the Windsors will have to wait until after the fact.