Prince Harry and his wife, former actress Meghan Markle, have been put through the
wringer in the last few years. But even with all the attention and royal responsibilities,
they still have to eat like everyone else. From comfort foods to fast food favorites,
here's what Prince Harry typically eats.
In 2017, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry were enjoying a cozy night in,
when the royal decided to pop the question. And as it turns out, food played a big part
in Harry's proposal. The happy couple revealed during their engagement interview with the BBC,
"What were we doing? Just roasting chicken?"
"Roasting a chicken. Trying to roast a chicken."
The chicken itself was rumored to be an Ina Garten recipe,
known for magically transforming couples to newlyweds, so it's nicknamed
engagement chicken as a result. Markle said in a 2017 interview with Good Housekeeping,
"There is nothing as delicious (or as impressive) as a perfectly
roasted chicken. If you have an Ina Garten-level roasted chicken recipe,
it's a game-changer. I bring that to dinner parties and make a lot of friends."
Whether or not they were successful in their attempts to make the perfect roasted chicken,
a simple chicken changed their lives forever.
"Boom."
Before Prince Harry was introduced to Meghan Markle by a mutual friend,
the Duke of Sussex didn't have the healthiest eating habits. He had a reputation for being the
royal family's designated bad boy and spent his time drinking and partying to his heart's content.
But since meeting Markle, he's made some drastic changes to his diet.
Gone is the pizza and fried chicken of his youth.
With Meghan by his side, he's now reportedly eating kale and quinoa, and learning to cook it,
too. Biographer Andrew Morton revealed in his book, Meghan: A Hollywood Princess,
"[Members of the royal family] eat to live rather than live to eat. [...] Meghan,
though, comes from the other end of the foodie chain;
she loves cooking, exploring new foods and experimenting with fresh flavours."
Meanwhile, a source told People,
"Harry has lost weight,
started a healthier diet and even gave up smoking cigarettes [...] They both felt amazing
leading up to the wedding. And he couldn’t have done it without [Meghan's] support."
Royal chef Darren McGrady cooked for the Queen, Princess Diana, Prince William,
and Prince Harry over the course of 15 years, and he often found himself cooking banana-flavored
desserts for the princes, then just young boys. McGrady told Hello! magazine in 2016,
"They loved banana flan, anything with banana really, banana ice cream."
While his brother's appreciation of these sweet desserts faded over time, Prince Harry apparently
still loves the fruity taste of bananas. Lucky for him, one of Meghan Markle's most popular recipes
is banana bread with ginger and chocolate chips, a uniquely delicious recipe fit for a prince.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, who recently bought a nine-bedroom,
16-bathroom home in California, are settling in nicely to their new lives in America.
According to Entertainment Tonight, the couple has even stopped at In-N-Out Burger
a few times for burgers and shakes, as well as a few items off the secret menu.
Apparently, the two were driving from Los Angeles to their home in Santa Barbara
when they got hungry and decided to stop. The In-N-Out employees were shocked and excited
when they saw the royal couple pull up at the drive-thru. After all, it's not every day that
the Duke and Duchess of Sussex show up at a random fast food joint in the middle of your shift. It's
safe to say the British prince has fully embraced his new life in the United States, fries and all.
When Prince Harry was young,
a trip to Disney World changed his life forever. According to former royal chef Darren McGrady,
at just eight years old, Prince Harry was an expert on bacon. McGrady told Food and
Wine that one morning after the family had returned from a trip to the United States,
"Prince Harry said to me, 'We had it in America at Disney World,
and it's so crispy you can snap it. You have to broil it first,
and then you have to put it in some paper towels and place it in the microwave for a minute.'
And I thought, yeah, OK, thank you, you little brat, teaching me how to cook."
But as it turned out, the young prince was right. His advice yielded bacon that was extra crispy,
which was just how he liked it. Once Chef McGrady knew the secret,
he never stopped cooking bacon this way, and Prince Harry reportedly never stopped eating it.
Before Prince Harry and Meghan Markle met, the prince could occasionally be spotted at
a now-defunct Notting Hill restaurant called The Rum Kitchen, which serves
rum-based cocktails and Caribbean-inspired food, from jerk chicken to curry mutton.
In 2013, Prince Harry was spotted dining at the Rum Kitchen with then-girlfriend Cressida Bonas.
The restaurant's extensive drink list, careful food preparation, and island vibes make it the
perfect fit for a prince. Everyone needs an island vacation every once in a while,
and though we imagine a trip to the Caribbean is most definitely feasible for the Duke of Sussex,
we commend him for supporting a local restaurant. He had to brave the paparazzi,
but after a few shots of rum and some time on the dance floor, we suspect it was worth it.
Prince Harry has come a long way since his days of getting caught stripping in Las Vegas. Gone are
his days of being the royal bad boy. Since then he has served in Afghanistan, married Meghan Markle
with whom he has a young son, and according to Food and Wine, he doesn't even eat pizza anymore.
On a trip to the United States in 2017, Prince Harry joined Michelle Obama for a visit to a
Chicago classroom. While there, one of the students insisted that Prince Harry try a slice
of deep-dish pizza before he left town. That's when Prince Harry admitted he's not a big fan
of pizza anymore, but he will eat the odd slice occasionally. As he told the group of students,
"I don't even eat pizza anymore. But I had pizza last night.”
“Did you have deep dish?”
“We had deep dish and thin crust."
The book Finding Freedom, which explores Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's lives in the royal
family, contains all kinds of secrets about the couple's love story. But the best part of the book
has to be the juicy details about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's royal cuisine. For example,
when Markle wanted to surprise Prince Harry on one of his visits to see her during the early days of
their long-distance courtship, she would cook him a traditional British Sunday roast for his lunch.
A Sunday roast is an important part of the British identity. This traditional
Sunday meal is comprised of roast beef, a side of vegetables, and a Yorkshire pudding. Naturally,
this is Prince Harry's favorite food, and now that Markle is a member of the royal family,
she apparently loves a good Sunday roast too. According to Finding Freedom,
"Harry often took the lead on romantic gestures,
but Meghan made sure to show her appreciation and return the affection. [...] During one trip,
she cooked him a traditional British Sunday roast lunch, even though it was a weekday, because
Harry told her it was his favorite meal. ‘There’s never a wrong time for a roast,’ she later joked."
Prince Harry can be a bit of a traditionalist when it comes to food.
Some of his favorite foods are classic British cuisines, from Yorkshire pudding to cottage pie,
the latter of which has apparently been Prince Harry's preferred comfort food
since he and his brother were young. Former royal chef Darren McGrady explained to Delish,
"Cottage pie is a traditional nursery dish and it's been served by the royal family for
over 100 years. [...] Cottage pie is just a delicious combination of the ground beef,
and the onions [...] some mashed potatoes on the top."
According to Chef McGrady,
"William and Harry were in the kitchen all the time. [...] This was a real treat for them to
come home to. Some steaming hot cottage pie with that melted cheese on the top."
The authentic cottage pie recipe was created as a way to use up the leftover meat from a Sunday
roast. But freshly ground beef works just as well, and we're willing to bet the royal family
didn't eat leftovers. Regardless of how it was made, cottage pie was one of the young princes'
favorite foods. McGrady said that when the boys were home, if the dish wasn't on the menu,
"They'd come in and say, 'Can we have some cottage pie, please, for dinner?'"
One of Prince Harry's favorite desserts is a food that comes from his wife's former home, but Harry
loved nanaimo bars long before he began making frequent visits to Canada to visit Meghan Markle.
Nanaimo bars are a popular Canadian dessert named after a coastal city in British Columbia.
They are made by layering chocolate and custard over a cracker crumb crust.
According to Darren McGrady, the former chef for the royal family, the royals began eating nanaimo
bars after the Queen visited Canada during a royal tour. McGrady said he used to make
nanaimo bars for Princes Harry and William and their friends at Kensington Palace. And Prince
Harry reportedly still loves this dessert. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were served nanaimo
bars at an event at Canada's London-based high commission. According to the Daily Mail,
"At the end of the night they even asked if they could take a plate of it home with them."
The Duke of Sussex has reportedly been known to frequent a popular UK fast food restaurant
called Nando's. Both William and Harry are apparently fans of Nando's famous chicken,
but Prince Harry's typical Nando's order might disappoint the chain's diehard patrons.
Nando's is best known for its hot chicken, a dish with African roots.
You can order Nando's chicken in four different ways: extra hot, hot, medium, or lemon and herb.
"It's like chicken. A lot of chicken. Chicken done several ways."
Prince Harry reportedly opted for the mildest option, selecting the lemon and herb sauce.
It appears that even a hint of spice is too much for the Duke of Sussex. According to the Express,
"He ordered a pitta with extra cheese and a side of creamy mash,
along with a double chicken wrap with chips. [...] He also got a soft drink and a bottle of water."
When William and Harry were young, they were reportedly big fans of mac and cheese.
Former royal chef Darren McGrady shared his mac and cheese recipe on YouTube,
claiming that it's easy to make at home. McGrady revealed,
"All you need to put in there is butter, flour, milk, cheddar cheese,
parmesan cheese, and salt. Don't tell me you still use those packet mixes."
When McGrady cooked mac and cheese at Kensington Palace,
the boys often ate it with roast chicken and broccoli on the side. Sometimes, instead of
having mac and cheese with the roast chicken, McGrady would serve mashed potatoes and gravy,
but he claimed that mac and cheese was the boys' favorite. Basically, Prince Harry's mac
and cheese is an easy recipe that anyone could master, especially with the royal chef's help.
When Prince Harry and Meghan Markle got married, the couple chose a lemon and elderflower
cake for the big day, which was a departure from traditional royal wedding cakes.
The wedding cake, which featured seasonal ingredients, was made by London bakery Violet.
But since that fateful day, the royal couple has been made to suffer through some brutal media
attention. In January 2020, CNN reported that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle would be taking a
step back from their duties in the royal family. Since the couple's engagement, the media has
frequently denigrated Markle, to the point that she ended up suing the Mail on Sunday newspaper.
Many of these UK media giants accused the Duke and Duchess of having their cake and eating it too.
A photographer for The Sun told the National Post,
"You know, you are either a member of the royal family or you're not."
But despite the blowback they've received from both the media and the royal family,
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle seem to be doing just fine.
And we're sure that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are enjoying good food in their new American home.
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