I'm Darren McGrady in the royal chef
former chef to the Queen
Princess Diana Prince William and Prince
Harry now I'm going to be preparing one
of Prince William and Harry's favorite
dishes cottage pie cottage pie is a
traditional nursery dish and it's been
served by the royal family for over 100
years William and Harry was seven and
ten when I started cooking for them at
Kensington Palace they come in the
kitchen all the time
if they saw me cooking this one they
knew it was gonna be a fun lunch cottage
pies just a delicious combination of the
ground beef and the onions a little
garlic a little gravy browning salt and
pepper some flour to thicken and some
nice broth in there as well and that
just simmers away and once that's done
we put some mashed potatoes on the top
finished off with a little cheese a
little cilantro and it just makes the
most incredible dish that I prepare for
the boys at least every time they came
home William and Harry were in the
kitchen all the time whether it was to
find out what was for lunch or to just
play hide-and-seek or just to come
through and chat sometimes they'd want
to come through and cook that was always
a worrying experience but it was always
fun having the boys in the kitchen and
although it was a royal palace they were
royal children and just like normal
children running around the house having
fun
so I'm now I didn't some gravy browning
just to darken the meat a little and the
sauce and then some garlic William and
Harry are much different
I remember Princess Diana I've been in
the kitchen one day and the boys had
just been in chatting away and the
princess says you know the boys are so
different
Williams deep like his father and Harry
is just an airhead like me yikes when
the boys were bored they'd actually come
and ask if they could cook in the
kitchen too one day I was making stuffed
eggplant for Princess Diana and William
says oh can I make that I lifted it out
the oven put it on the table and he
lifted it onto the plate just as he did
Princess Diana walked into the kitchen
and he just twisted it like that and it
just collapsed onto the play it was like
a train smash and I said Oh your
highness Williams made you lunch
yikes that was a mess when they stayed
with Princess Diana at Kensington it was
a lot more relaxed so the princess would
let them eat dinner watching TV on a
Saturday night that was always fun for
them she wanted them to be royal princes
but at the same time she wanted them to
be children too I think he was probably
a little bit more relaxed when they were
with mum so we went about five minutes
or so on that William and Harry really
were good when he came to whatever foods
we put on the table it was a balance
really of dishes that nanny chose for
them like they're sort of roast chicken
and the green vegetables and then
switching you know other days to things
like the cottage pie and burgers and hot
dogs they were pretty good
they never really sort of left lots of
food at all they always made sure there
was room for pudding it was really funny
cooking at Kensington Palace for William
and Harry there was a constant battle
going on with Princess Diana and the
nanny and nanny always insisted that the
boys had their greens they've got to
have their cabbage they've got to have
their broccoli and Princess Diana was oh
if they don't want that they don't have
to eat it they can go straight to
burgers and hotdogs and things like that
and if they want to skip that altogether
they can just have pudding that's okay
she was a real mom then before we put
the potatoes on the top this has to set
for about 30 minutes in the refrigerator
I've so many memories of my 15 years
with the royal family seeing
Princess Diana come into the kitchen
with William and Harry to see in a real
family that's when she was happiest when
she was in Kensington Palace with her
little boys just just her and the boys
there was such fun times seeing the boys
growing up giving them the new
experiences lend them sample different
foods and seeing their faces when
they're trying dishes for the first time
watching them cook in the kitchen scene
Harry throw posture of the wall to see
if it sticks
because I told him that's how you tell
if it's cold happy memories at
Kensington
you don't normally have a relationship
or stay in contact with members of the
royal family after you leave we're
servants in the kitchen to the royal
family they're just on a different level
I send William Harry notes every now and
again I send them copies of my cookbooks
when they came out hopefully they use
them Prince Harry cooked roast chicken
for Megan when he was dating I think I
showed him how to do that recipe
delicious layer of ground beef creamy
mashed potatoes on the top and I think
that this was William and Harry's
favorite part that cheddar cheese
sprinkled over the top so that when he
comes out of the oven it just runs and
melts and goes all gooey into the mashed
potatoes what's not to like about
cottage pie
[Music]
William and Harry were at school all
week and would come home on weekends so
this was a real tree for them to come
home to some steaming hot cottage pie
with that melty cheese on the top the
potatoes running into the pie mix there
this was one of the favorites and if it
wasn't on the menu
they'd come in and say can we have
cottage pie for dinner