The age-old debate about what constitutes a traditional roast dinner may have been settled by the Royals.
Everyone has their own preferences for a Sunday roast, from whether to include mashed potatoes alongside roast ones, to the choice of vegetables and the number of Yorkshire puddings. However, Darren McGrady, who served as a chef for the Royals for 15 years, has revealed how they prefer their roast dinner during an interview with Heart Bingo Online.
According to McGrady, the Royals keep it simple and stick to what he calls “the traditional bits”. There’s no fancy additions or attempts to make the meal more extravagant when it comes to the Royal’s roast, and they do indeed enjoy both mashed and roast potatoes.
McGrady said: “They would just have normal food. You would think the Queen would have Yorkshire pudding with foie gras in there, but that never happened. The Queen could have anything she wanted, but for her to be able to tell the guests around the table that the carrots were grown in the gardens meant more to her.”
The only difference between the Royal’s roast and the average Brit’s is that theirs is “cooked to perfection”. For instance, the chef explains that the mashed potatoes had no lumps or bits of skin, with the perfect balance of butter and cream – attention to detail was always paramount for him.
Like most of us, the royals are enthusiasts of a substantial Yorkshire pudding. The chef revealed: “The Yorkshires were so big we had to take the oven door off to get them out.”
They would invariably choose to eat them with beef, but remarkably they would never eat Yorkshire pudding accompanied by other meats on their roast.
Regarding the vegetables, they would consistently be served a delicious variety, all from whatever was flourishing on the estate. For instance, if the carrots were ready to be harvested, they would have that, and the applesauce was prepared using the apples from Highgrove.
However, another contentious element that frequently accompanies the traditional roast dinner debate is what condiments go with your meal. Concerning the royals, there are several aspects to this; according to the chef, they are fond of horseradish.
He explains: “When it came to roast beef, they would have horseradish, as it’s the natural pairing with it. But they would have horseradish cream. It’s lighter, it’s creamer and it’s not as strong. “.
The ultimate secret for this perfected flavour depends on whipping cream and folding the horseradish into it. Generally, the cooks would work on a ratio of 2:1, meaning there are two parts horseradish and one part whipped cream, to lighten it.