The Reason Queen Elizabeth Has To Eat A Burger With A Knife And A Fork
While street food can demonstrate the very best of inventive and delicious cuisine, it is usually a far cry from sophisticated gourmet dining. You likely wouldn't expect to be served the same cheese-filled hot dogs you find on a cart when you sit down to dine in a Michelin-starred restaurant.
However, those sorts of exciting snacks are exactly what street food merchants excel at. Whether it's stone-baked pizzas skillfully crafted from the freshest dough, or greasy burgers dripping with condiments, the fare offered by these vendors invariably showcases some of the finger foods so many of us enjoy.
We should all therefore pity the curse of being an aristocrat, who is much too elegant to roam neighborhoods with fingers laced with barbecue sauce. While their massive houses and equally large bank accounts likely help to subdue some of the disappointment, the eating habits of graceful British royals are controlled even further — to the extent that Queen Elizabeth has to eat burgers, an American food she enjoys, with a knife and fork (via Insider).
Victorian tradition dictates how Queen Elizabeth eats her food
Even though it might be commonly believed that Queen Elizabeth II can do pretty much whatever she wants as the British head of state, she is sometimes restricted by royal traditions that even control how she eats her food.
Insider reports that the queen eats burgers without buns because eating food with her fingers is prevented by historic royal rules. Apparently, strict Victorian measures dictate that only afternoon tea is allowed to be eaten using fingers. The queen's afternoon tea is a daily snack consisting of tea, sandwiches, and generous slices of the queen's favorite types of cake (via Hello!).
The old-fashioned rule means that Queen Elizabeth's burgers have to be specially prepared without buns so that they can be easily eaten with a knife and fork, according to Insider. Delish notes that during summer vacations, burgers are sometimes made using venison hunted by the royal family and garnished with cranberry stuffing.