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Woman & Home
Woman & Home
Lifestyle
Laura Harman

We can't get over the bizarre way Queen Elizabeth II used to eat bananas!

the bizarre way Queen Elizabeth II used to eat bananas

The late Queen Elizabeth II used to eat bananas in the strangest fashion and we are obsessed with her quirky behaviour. 


While many of us have heard about all of the weird things Her Majesty likes and dislikes when it comes to food, there are still a number of stories about the Queen's palate that have continued to confuse royal fans. One particular story comes from former Chef Darren McGrady who revealed that the Queen prefers to eat her bananas rather strangely.

Darren McGrady told Marie Claire, "With a banana, she'll cut off the bottoms and cut the banana lengthwise, and then cut the banana into tiny slices to eat with a fork." 

Etiquette expert William Hanson confirmed this story when he wrote for the Daily Mail that Her Majesty would usually eat bananas after dinner was served, rather than with breakfast or as a snack. "Dessert was traditionally the fruit course at the end of the meal, whereas today people confuse it with the sweet course. At state banquets, fruit is still served as a palate cleanser. A banana is always the easiest fruit to pick. Cut both ends off with dessert cutlery (very sharp), slice down the skin to unwrap, and then cut off slices and eat with a fork and knife," he said.

(Image credit: Photo by Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images)

This seems bizarre, but when you think about it, can you imagine the Queen peeling a banana with her hands and then eating it straight from the peel? Probably not.

Another strange fact about the royals and their bananas is to do with the Princess Royal. Princess Anne has a weird banans habit, but it's less to do with how she eats them, and somewhat more to do with when she eats them.

"Princess Anne was lovely," former royal footman Steven Kaye told Marie Claire. "A funny story for you: Once the chefs had cleaned up in the kitchen, you’d go and get things for breakfast and there would always be a bunch of bananas literally on the side that were black, they were left to rot, they were never put away in the fridge."

"I remember asking who they were for and it turns out the Princess Royal only eats black bananas—the royal chef had strict instructions to serve them overripe," Steven concluded. This honestly may be an even worse offense, surely the only thing a black banana is good for is banana bread? In any case, we probably won't fancy copying any of these royal habits...

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