- I'm Darren McGrady, the Royal Chef,
former chef to the Queen, Princess Diana,
Prince William and Prince Harry,
and today I'm going to be making a salmon coulibiac,
and this is one of Prince Philip's favorites.
(royal music)
Salmon coulibiac is a Russian dish,
and Augustus Escoffier, the Master Chef
in the whole universe, he created it
with some Russian Naval officers,
and then the rest is history.
It's been made for hundreds of years.
In the dish, we have salmon, obviously, some puff pastry,
mushrooms, onions, some hard boiled eggs, some rice,
and normally dill, but I like to use tarragon in there,
so I'm gonna chop all these, put all these together,
and create the most amazing salmon coulibiac.
Salmon was on the menu all the time at Balmoral.
The queen mother and Prince Charles were often fly fishing,
and I remember one time when Prince Charles came in
with this salmon, so I went over and took this one from it,
and the fish started flapping about.
Oh my gosh, I'd never seen that before,
I'd never lifted a fish that was moving,
and it was like a Mexican wave all through my body,
and I just sort of, ugh, froze,
and I had to take it and weight it
and make a record of where it was caught,
and then get it ready for the royal table.
Prince Philip was the first member
of the royal family that I met.
It was at Balmoral Castle, I'd only been there a day.
I was in the kitchen, and I seemed to be on my own,
and this man walked into the kitchen,
this elderly gentleman, and he was in real tatty clothes,
and he had a green pullover on with the arms
all hanging out, and I looked at him and I thought,
"Oh, it's the gardener," and he said,
"Is the chef here, please?"
And I said, "Uh, just a minute, I'll get him for you,"
and I went into the Lottie kitchen, I said,
"Chef, the gardener's here to see you,"
and he said, "The gardener, this time of night?"
So, we both scurried back through to the main kitchen,
and I was mortified when the chef said,
"Oh, good evening, Your Royal Highness,"
and it suddenly dawned on me, it was Prince Philip.
(gasping) So, all the mushrooms and the onions
go into the pan with some melted butter,
and we're going to saute' those on the stove
with a little salt and pepper until they become
translucent, and nice and soft.
It was interesting cooking for the Queen and the Duke
because of the different pallets.
Prince Philip has a much broader pallet
than Her Majesty when it comes to food.
The Queen eats to live, whereas Prince Philip lives to eat.
He loves, not only to cook food, but he loves to forage,
he loves to talk about food, he loves to grow food,
and when he was traveling all those years,
certainly through his time in the Navy,
he loved all the different dishes,
whether it was sort of curries
with lots of garlic and lots of Indian spices
and things like that, he's a real foodie.
When we were cooking for them, we could never do,
okay well, your plate is going to have lots of garlic,
your plate's having no garlic.
It always was down to the Queen is hosting the meal,
so you have everything how she likes it,
so I think sometimes Prince Philip actually enjoyed
eating on his own. (laughing)
Prince Philip not only loved to eat,
but he loved to cook as well.
The royal family go to Balmoral for two weeks in the summer,
and Prince Philip cooked on the grill
maybe three, four, five times a week.
He'll cook salmon, he'll cook beef, he'll cook venison,
game, anything on there, he loves being at the grill.
I remember being with him one time at Sandringham,
and he came into the kitchen, and he said,
"What are we having for dinner this evening?"
And I said, "Well, you have these little nuazets of lamb,
"Your Highness," and I showed 'em to him,
and he said, "Well, what are those ones in there?"
And I said, "Well, those lamb chops there
"for the staff, for their dinner tonight."
He said, "Well, we'll have those, in fact, we'll have both,
"and I'll cook," and so he actually cooked
on the grill that night, he cooked for me.
There was I, his chef, I mean what was I supposed to do?
Go out and do royal engagements while he was doing
my job in the kitchen? (laughing)
The mushrooms and the onions have all started
to come together now, starting to soften in the butter.
They'll carry on cooking when they go on top of the salmon.
They're gonna be in the oven for about 35 minutes.
Now, to add the rest of the ingredients.
Into this, I'm going to add some rice
that I've already cooked.
Normally it's white rice, but you can add brown rice
or black rice into this one, too.
You could even put quinoa and any of the other
sort of pulses as well.
So, once all that's mixed in,
it's just correcting that seasoning.
Prince Philip is not the only chef in the family.
Prince Charles likes to cook as well.
At Christmas, they would gather at Sandringham.
The hampers would start arriving, and Prince Philip
would get a gift hamper from Harrods
with all these goodies in it, with foie gras and caviar
and Christmas cakes, and Prince Philip would arrive
with a hamper from Highgrove.
I remember one time, Prince Philip came into the kitchen,
and he said, "Is this the hamper?
"Is this the Harrods hamper?"
and I said, "No, Your Royal Highness.
"This is the hamper that the Prince of Wales
"has brought up with him from Highgrove.
"It's all of his organic produce," and he just turned
and looked and said, "Bloody organic," and walked off.
I think back then, he wasn't really into organic
or knew what it was, but the Prince of Wales was,
he was organic before it was even invented.
I've trimmed the salmon, so that's ready
to perfectly fit into the pastry that I'm rolling out.
Now, it's time to build the salmon coulibiac.
We've got the pastry rolled out,
the salmon's already cut-ready, the filling is all set,
so we do a little of the filling in the center,
and my eggs go on top of that.
And, invert the salmon over the top
'cause this is gonna be the base.
A little more salt and pepper.
And then, some more of our filling.
Once we've got that, I've got some tarragon
that I'm just going to lay and sprinkle over the top.
I mean, this is a whole meal in one,
just wrapped together in pastry.
The next stage is to put a little egg wash
around the outside of the pastry,
which will seal in all of the salmon and the garnish.
And, I don't want too much pastry,
so I'll trim a little bit of the pastry off
from each end here, and then fold over the second one.
When the Queen was away on engagements,
Prince Philip could taste all of his own
favorite ingredients, he could have woodcock and grouse
and all the pheasant and game and thing that he wanted.
He loved all that sort of real spicy food.
He loved the black puddings, and he could explore more
and sort of enjoy those when the Queen
was away on engagements.
When they were home together, the Queen would have
her breakfast in the sitting room,
and Prince Philip would have his separate, too.
He would have a cooked breakfast,
and then they may join each other for lunch,
unless they've got engagements.
Then, afternoon tea together if they could,
and then, obviously in the evening,
if there was nothing going on, no big engagements,
then they would eat together then as well.
Next, it's going into the oven for about 35 minutes
to cook the pastry and cook the salmon inside.
While the salmon's in the oven cooking,
I want to share with you a story
about Prince Philip teaching me to cook.
We were in the kitchen peeling the mangoes,
and Prince Philip walked into the kitchen
and he stopped and he looked and he said,
"What are you doing peeling the mangoes?"
And I said, "Peeling them, sir."
He said, "Yes, you're doing it wrong,"
and he picked up a mango, he said,
"Give me a knife and a spoon."
I thought, oh my gosh, Prince Philip's teaching me
how to cook, so he took a mango, and then cut around
the middle, just like this, and once he'd done that,
he said, "Watch this," and then he put the spoon in
upside down over the top of the pit.
He said, "That's how you take the centerpiece out,
"the stone," and then dug the spoon in there,
followed it all around, and took out the beautiful mango.
From then on, we had to do them that way,
just in case he walked into the kitchen.
There was no more peeling mangoes. (laughing)
I've roasted some peppers with a little rosemary, garlic,
just a little garlic 'cause the Queen doesn't like garlic,
but just enough to give it some flavor,
and now I've pureed them with a little chicken broth,
and I'm making a little sauce just to go around the side
and make the coulibiac look really, really pretty.
I don't think Prince Philip has a go-to
when he's sort of splurging out,
when he wants something different.
I think that his diet is so varied
that he wants to try different dishes all the time,
he gets so excited when he's out at a restaurant
or he's in another country on an engagement,
he'll often ask for the recipe.
I remember him coming back from Iceland
and he said, "I've got this recipe.
"I had this most amazing Crème Anglaise,"
and it was pancakes with cream and jam, it was served cold,
and he loved them, absolutely loved them,
and from then on, they were on the menu.
It's been in the oven for 35 minutes now,
it's a nice golden brown, I think it's cooked.
We're gonna bring it out now and rest it.
You can see why Prince Philip loved this one.
It's a fish dish.
Look at that gorgeous salmon in there in those layers.
And then, just finish with my bell pepper sauce.
That not only smells amazing, but the rice
and the mushrooms and the onion and the tarragon,
everything in there is just incredible,
and you can see why this was a favorite.
No wonder this dish has been in the family for so long.
The flavors are incredible.
Salmon coulibiac, the best!
Mm, it's so good. (mouse clicking)