The nation is in mourning after it was announced that the Queen had sadly died on Thursday with her son and successor Charles and his sibling the Princess Royal reportedly by her side.
She was a woman of character and one whose gentle nature, kindness and steadfastness always shone through. And despite being the head of state and the Queen of England, she had habits just like you and I - albeit, with a bit more grandeur. She was known to partake in a comedy sketch - 007, Paddington and the Olympic opening ceremony to name a few - and had a delicious guilty pleasure that we can all resonate with: hamburgers.
We're not talking about a greasy MacDonald's whopper or a slightly more upmarket Fat Hippo hamburger. Her Majesty's go-to junk food is fabulously bougie and comes bunless.
Read more: Tributes flood social media as nations around the world pay their respects to Queen Elizabeth II
A former royal chef, who worked in the kitchens at Buckingham Palace for 15 years cooking up breakfast, lunches and dinners for the much-loved family - Prince Philip, Prince William, now Duke of Cornwall, Prince Harry and the late Princess Diana included - revealed the late monarch's favourite fast food comes a little more indulgent than what we're used to, using meat such as venison as opposed to beef.
Darren McGrady explained previously how he would make the hamburgers sans bun from deer the royals would hunt at Balmoral. He would then stuff the venison with an array of ingredients, including cranberries.
Speaking to Insider some time ago, Chef Darren explained: "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, but we never set buns out. They would have burgers, but not the buns. So they would eat it with their knife and fork."
Eating a burger with a knife and fork may seem blasphemous, as the delicacy is so widely known to be enjoyed with a full handful of beef (or plant-based alternative) and a bun, but Darren explained: "Her Majesty's Victorian upbringing dictates that the only thing you would pick up and eat with your fingers is afternoon tea."
Eating a burger with cutlery isn't the only unique culinary habit the Queen adopted throughout her 96 years. She tended to avoid all fast food, not even grazing on a slice of pizza. "The menus at Buckingham Palace are very traditional French, which wouldn't lean towards having pizza on it," said Darren. He added that some other unique eating tendencies she had are sure to puzzle you, one of which included using a knife and fork to eat a banana, according to Hello! magazine.
Garlic is a "no-no" in the royal household too. This fact was confirmed when Camilla, the new Queen Consort, appeared on MasterChef Australia some years ago and jokingly said: "You always have to lay off the garlic". Speaking to Marie Claire in 2017, Darren McGrady added: "The Queen would never have garlic on the menu. She hated the smell of it, she hated the taste of it."
In line with her bunless burgers, the Queen too was said to never eat starchy foods at dinner - meaning pasta, potatoes and rice would be banished from the menu. In addition to this, it is thought that Her Majesty would have dined with a collection of silver and gold cutlery and gorgeously-painted china plates. But it seems that she wasn't that particular about how her food came presented - on occasion. Speaking to Marie Claire, Darren revealed her penchant for Tupperware.
"People always say, 'Oh, the Queen must eat off gold plates with gold knives and forks.' Yes, sometimes...but at Balmoral she'd eat fruit from a plastic yellow Tupperware container." She also enjoyed a good bog-standard brekkie with Kellog's cereal, it is reported.
"Breakfast was very simple for Her Majesty," Darren said. "Some Kellogg's cereal from a plastic container, which she'd serve herself. And some Darjeeling tea."
Aside from a marmalade sandwich (in her handbag, as she told Paddington Bear at her Platinum Jubilee celebration earlier this year) and afternoon tea, the Queen was known to favour dark chocolate too as something sweet. "That was her favourite," the former royal chef said. "It has to be dark chocolate. The darker the chocolate, the better."
Another favourite of hers was a gin and Dubonnet cocktail - served as two parts Dubonnet with one part gin. See here for how Queen Elizabeth II took her tea, her favoured tipples and favourite radio station.
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