When you stop and think about it, we very rarely see members of the Royal Family eating in public and perhaps this is why it’s always so intriguing to hear them talking about their favourite treats or cooking abilities. We know that the Princess of Wales loves spicy food, whilst Queen Camilla makes fresh dishes like fish en papillote.
Like a lot of people, it sounds like they take more time cooking dinner than lunch and Zara Tindall’s everyday lunches are ultra speedy. Speaking to Sunday Times in 2015, the equestrian revealed that she has two options that are equally unfussy.
“Lunch is quick and simple, like soup and a sandwich, or eggs on toast,” she said. “I don’t diet but I try to eat well, and not eat too many carbohydrates, or sugary things.”
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No matter how Zara cooks her eggs or what she puts in her sandwich day-to-day, these two lunches take very little time to prepare. They’re also very nutritionally balanced and require a minimal amount of ingredients which is always a bonus.
As a busy mum-of-three and a professional equestrian these two meals tick all the boxes for Zara Tindall and are a lot more filling than her mum Princess Anne’s reported go-to. According to Robert Hardman’s Queen Of Our Times: The Life of Queen Elizabeth II, Zara allegedly revealed her mother “always has a kiwi fruit” with her.
The book went on to suggest that Princess Anne apparently often prefers to pull out a kiwi from her handbag and eat that rather than having lunch. Zara’s uncle King Charles also famously didn’t use to eat a full lunch either, preferring to work through instead so this seems to be a trait shared by the hard-working siblings.
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Since welcoming her children Mia, Lena and Lucas, Zara Tindall has switched up her diet slightly, with her husband Mike revealing in 2022 that she’s “not into eating red meat” anymore so they often have different evening meals. When they did eat the same thing together she explained that “something healthy, like fish and vegetables” would often be on the menu.
Her late grandmother Queen Elizabeth would’ve approved of this. She also loved fresh, simple dishes when she was eating alone and is believed to have generally avoided starch-heavy foods like pasta, potatoes or rice. Fish was a favourite of hers and when she was feeling indulgent she would enjoy a “more refined” version of fish and chips.
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Former palace chef Darren McGrady has said in the past that traditional battered fish “was a little bit too much” for Her Majesty. Instead, he’d breadcrumb the fish and bake it, before serving it with a stack of neat chips and Hollandaise rather than tartar sauce.
This does sound delicious, but Queen Camilla likes this British dish to be served in a way many people will be far more familiar with. In an interview with her son, food critic and writer Tom Parker Bowles, for You magazine, the Queen said she enjoys “freshly cooked fish and chips, wrapped in paper” and thinks “you cannot beat” it when it’s done properly.