Teaching a prince! Former royal chef Darren McGrady recently revealed that he believes he was the one who taught Prince Harry to make roast chicken, which the Duke of Sussex prepared for Meghan Markle before they tied the knot in May 2018.
McGrady, 58, spilled the juicy tidbit while explaining his current bond with Harry, 35, and the rest of the royal family in a YouTube video posted by Delish on Wednesday, January 22. “You don’t normally have a relationship or stay in contact with members of the royal family after you leave,” he said. “We’re servants in the kitchen to the royal family and they’re just on a different level.”
Despite certain protocol, the culinary pro, who was the personal chef to Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip, Princess Diana, and Princes William and Harry for 15 years, still has some contact with the younger royals. “I send William and Harry notes every now and again,” he said of the princes. “I send copies of my cookbooks when they come out, hopefully they use them.”
McGrady added: “Prince Harry cooked roast chicken for Meghan when he was dating [her]. I think I showed him how to do that recipe!”
That dish, as it turns out, is one of the couple’s favorite meals to make. As many royal fans may know, Harry and Meghan, 38, cooked roast chicken together the night they got engaged in November 2017.
Roughly a year later, Ina Garten jokingly took credit for the pair’s engagement since many speculated that the Suit’s alum, who is a fan of 71-year-old Garten’s, prepared her roast chicken recipe that evening. “Without me, it never would have happened,” Garten quipped with a laugh to the Today Show’s Willie Geist at the time. “Isn’t that a wonderful story? How powerful is that?”
Dueling chicken recipes aside, it’s clear that McGrady has fond memories of his time with the royal family. Elsewhere in the video, during which the chef prepared Harry and 38-year-old Prince William’s “favorite,” cottage pie, McGrady recalled that the young princes were “good” eaters. “It was a balance, really, of dishes that nanny chose for them, like roast chicken and green vegetables, and switching other days to things like the cottage pie and burgers and hot dogs,” he explained.
McGrady, who has since made several unkind statements about Meghan, also divulged a bit about the late Princess Diana’s parenting style, noting that she was “relaxed” and keen to let her kids skip their greens and go straight to dessert. As he put it: “She was a real mom.”
