Although Queen Elizabeth could've had her pick of over-the-top royal meals, she preferred to keep things simple. Former royal chef Darren McGrady has revealed some of the late Queen's favorite foods over the years—including one "Parisian bistro favorite." But in his new memoir, The Royal Insider, former royal butler Paul Burrell shares that Queen Elizabeth always kept one item close during tea.
"You have no idea how many jars of jam and honey she was sent by people," Burrell writes in the book, which was serialized in the Daily Mail on September 9. He adds that she particularly "loved" eating "home-grown produce"—a habit she'd pass down to her sustainable farming champion King Charles.
One such locally made product was jam made from quinces, a fruit similar in taste to an apple or pear. "Each year on her annual visit to Helmingham Hall in Suffolk, her hostess Lady Tollemache would give the Queen a jar of quince jelly made from fruit grown in her garden," Burrell shares.
So prized was her special quince jelly that Queen Elizabeth brought it everywhere she went. "This jar appeared on the table every teatime, whichever residence Her Majesty was in," Burrell writes, adding, "This meant carrying the jar around the world until it was finished."
But quince jelly wasn't the only favorite of the late Queen. In an August interview with Marie Claire, Burrell said that Princess Margaret and Queen Elizabeth used to act "like two giggling schoolchildren" as they picked their own strawberries at Balmoral.
"They picked their strawberries, and then the ones left over, they'd ask the pastry chef to make jam," Burrell shared. "Woe betides if anyone touched it. That was their jam, and they would eat it until it was gone."
In his new memoir, the former royal butler also opened up about the final days of Queen Elizabeth's life, sharing that she made a special request to her doctors after being diagnosed with cancer.
"As far as the family was concerned everything was fine, but the doctors’ prognosis gave her only until Christmas," Burrell writes in The Royal Insider. "The Queen’s response was, 'Well, that’s a shame, because next year is my Platinum Jubilee year and I’d quite like to have seen that. Can you keep me alive for that?'"
Although she did live to see the celebration of her 70 years on the throne, Burrell writes that Queen Elizabeth "knew through it all that she was dying."
