The Queen’s staff still use antique cookware including pots and pans from Queen Victoria’s reign
THE Queen’s staff use antique cookware and prepare dishes in pots and pans which were used during Queen Victoria’s reign.
The Queen’s former chef, Darren McGrady, claimed the monarch’s lack of interest in food meant she wasn’t too bothered about the running of the palace kitchens.
As a result, chefs and cooks were left using saucepans dating back to the 1800s - which belonged to the Queen’s great-great-grandmother.
Darren said the sturdy pots were branded with ‘VR’ on the bottom, standing for Victoria Regina, which meant they once belonged to Queen Victoria.
Darren, who cooked for the Queen for more than 10 years, previously : “The Queen’s not really bothered about food.
“The chefs and food and kitchens come last.
“They’re still using pots and pans from the 1800s, with the Queen Victoria stamp on them.”
But rather than complain about them, Darren claimed they were the best part about the kitchens.
The pans were made from copper and lined with tin, but their quality is what has led them to stand the test of time.
And there was one other impressive element of the kitchens, Darren said, and that was the sheer size.
The kitchen at Buckingham Palace is so vast, Darren said “you had to walk miles and miles” when working in it.
Darren cooked for the Queen across the royal palaces, and even aboad the now decommissioned yacht Britannia, as well as on royal tours abroad.
He claimed the monarch isn’t a big foodie, and wasn’t too adventurous with her meals, unlike Prince Philip.
Darren said: “The queen is a chocoholic. She loves anything with chocolate in it.
“And she also loves game from her estates. So if you could put on the menu salmon the Prince of Wales caught from the River Dee at Balmoral, she would love it.”
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