A former royal chef has revealed why royal children, including Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, aren't allowed to sit with their parents at formal dinners and the reason is both understandable and harsh.
- A former royal chef has shared that royal youngsters eat in a separate room to their parents at formal dinners, including Christmas dinner, until they are 'old enough to conduct themselves properly at the dining table.'
- The rule is longstanding and means that Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis will not join the adult table until they've been introduced to 'new grownup dishes' and evolved 'their palates.'
- In other royal news, Prince George, Charlotte and Louis preparing for bittersweet end to the summer with the breaking of this royal tradition.
Kate Middleton may be astute about splitting her time equally between her royal duties and family life, but the royal rules are enforced from an early age and she can't let her children break them all.
According to reports in The Mirror, “The rules start early on. Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis had to learn very early on what they can and cannot do." So what can and can't they do? For example, the children must hold their parents' hands during outings and they're expected to uphold royal protocol at all times.
In addition, they also have household rules imposed by Kate and William including the one word that can't be uttered in their home and the habit William makes sure they all follow that was inspired by his late mother, Princess Diana.
But perhaps the harshest rule is that Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis are not allowed to sit with their mum and dad at official dinners, even at Christmas dinner! Before they head off to the adults table, the youngsters must have “learned the art of polite conversation.”
Former royal chef Darren McGrady worked for both the late Queen and Princess Diana, so has a vast knowledge of royal life, especially when it comes to their favourite foods and their, perhaps least favourite, approaches to dining etiquette.
Speaking to The Mirror, the chef revealed that royal children were always made to eat formal dinners away from the other adults, mostly in the nursery with nannies, and were even separated as such during the Royal Family's Christmas lunch.
So why take the age old tradition of the kids table and enhance the idea by putting the children in their own room? According to McGrady, it was all about the kids learning proper behaviour.
He shared, “The children always ate in the nursery until they were old enough to conduct themselves properly at the dining table."
It isn't just the children who have strict rules to follow, but the royal chefs too. One of the strangest? They are not allowed to serve pizza. McGrady previously told told Insider, "[I spent] Eleven years at The Palace and we never served pizza at all, not even at receptions. The menus at Buckingham Palace are very traditional French, which wouldn't lean towards having pizza on it."
Similarly, takeaway burgers were off the menu, but the family still enjoyed their own, royal version of the delicacy. McGrady revealed, "It always tickled me at Balmoral, we would make our own burgers. They would shoot deer, and we would do venison burgers. There'd be gorgeous cranberry and everything stuffed into them.
"They would have burgers, but not the buns. So they would eat it with their knife and fork!"
