Is there anything more summery than a barbecue? Even the Royal Family like firing up the grill this time of year and according to Mike Tindall, Zara is a bit of an expert. Speaking exclusively to woman&home’s royal correspondent Emily Andrews in the July issue, the rugby star confessed his wife is better at barbecuing than he is.
“Zara is competitive in everything!” he said. “I think that’s the individual mindset. And she’s an amazing cook, better than me 100% and better on the barbecue.”
She might be the BBQ pro but Mike still likes to be involved, adding, “I enjoy standing around a barbecue because what man doesn’t? It makes you feel even manlier cooking meat! But washing up and clearing up, that’s my space.”
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It seems like Zara Tindall has inherited her love – and skill – at cooking on the barbecue from her late grandfather Prince Philip who was famous for his at-home grills. He might’ve been the husband of a reigning Queen, but Philip liked a challenge and once he decided to learn how to BBQ he put everything into it.
His BBQs are remembered fondly by his grandchildren and Prince William once explained that when the royals go on barbecues “there’s no chef, there’s [no-one] else”.
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“Every barbecue that I’ve ever been on, the Duke of Edinburgh has been there cooking,” he told the BBC documentary, Prince Philip: The Royal Family Remembers, in 2021, which was filmed both before and after the Duke’s death.
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William added, “He’d be the first person to say when he started off he hadn’t got a clue what he was doing. But such is the way that he is that he tackles a new challenge, and, you know, grapples it and learns as he does it. And he’s mastered it.”
When Prince Philip passed away Prince Harry even called his grandfather “master of the barbecue” – as well as “legend of banter”. Cooking for his family was probably a nice change for Philip and gave them a slice of normal life outside the palace with its chefs.
Duchess Sophie has said before that Prince Edward is also “very good at barbecues” which his own children Louise and James love so those memories of Philip grilling have clearly inspired several generations of his family. I’d love to know if it’s Zara or Edward that the royals turn to most now, as they’ve both nailed this summer skill.
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At least Zara Tindall has Mike to clear things up! She might take after Philip with the cooking, but Mike is following in Queen Elizabeth’s footsteps with the washing up.
Former British Prime Minister David Cameron said in 2022 that it was an “extraordinary treat” to go to Balmoral each year and recalled what it was like eating a meal with the Queen and Prince Philip out on the moor.
“And there at a sort of converted bothy, an old cottage on the hill, would be the Duke of Edinburgh with a barbeque he’d built himself, barbequing grouse for your dinner,” he said. “I’m not making this up, you sat down and Prince Philip and Her Majesty the Queen served your dinner and cleared it away and washed it up while you sat talking with the other guests.”
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