it seems like being royalty would be the
easiest job ever sure you get to travel
the world never have any financial
worries and eat all kinds of amazing
food but there's a catch it turns out
meal times are so complicated it's
enough to make anyone grateful they're
not a royal even if you know your salad
fork from your main course fork you're
only a fraction of the way through a
royal utensil etiquette Royals aren't
even allowed to use Forks like most of
us do diners hold Forks in their left
hand knives in their right push food on
to the back of the fork and eat from
there and it's the way the rest of the
British population prefer to eat as well
that's not all if a royal needs to
excuse themselves they're expected to
cross their utensils to signal they'll
be back and they expect their plate to
still be there when they're done
utensils are placed with the handles at
the bottom right side of the plate at an
angle technically this is the proper way
for everyone to leave their utensils but
it's definitely expected that royal
function according to Darren McGrady who
is Queen Elizabeth's personal chef for
11 years it doesn't matter how fast or
slow anyone else sees the only thing
that matters is when the Queen is done
he told The Huffington Post as soon as
she put down her knife and fork from the
first course the footmen come in the
course was over and they'd start
clearing even if you hadn't finished
they'd be clearing the table so when
you're dining with the Queen at a formal
banquet eat quickly how do you know when
a queen is actually done delicately
chowing down just look to her purse when
it comes to meal times it's often hung
from the underside of the table on a
convenient hook she carries just to that
purpose when she places her purse on the
table that's a sign she wants the entire
meal to come to an end within the next
five minutes and what the Queen wants
the Queen gets but it turns out that
diners aren't the only ones who have to
follow the Queen's winds because when
the Queen sets foot in the kitchen to
see what's going on all meal preparation
stops McGrady said that it didn't matter
what sort of dish you were working on
when the Queen stopped by all pans are
moved off the stove the chefs take three
steps back and bow to the monarch
answering any question she might have
something's burning in the oven it
doesn't matter it's only after she
leaves that cooking can resume there's a
way to make royalty and it's very
specific the tea goes into the cup first
then the milk is added when you're
stirring it can only view as a back and
forth motion while never touch
besides there are rules that need to be
followed when you're drinking that tea
to Royals have to hold the cup a
specific way and contrary to popular
belief the pinkie should never ever be
helped out and if you slurp or make any
sound when putting the cup in its saucer
sorry you're unworthy of sipping with
the Royals there are a ton of old
traditions beyond tea ceremonies that
are still followed in the royal family
and one of those is giving Christmas
gifts to staff George the fifth was
reportedly the one who first gave royal
staffers a Christmas pudding for the
holidays and it's a gift-giving
tradition that continues the Royals give
out about 1,500 puddings every December
to their entire palace staff for a long
time the puddings were sourced from
Fortnum and Mason the royal brochure but
recently the Royals have started
shopping at Tesco that's sort of like
giving everyone a fruitcake you bought
at Walmart long time employees and some
staffer stationed at Buckingham Palace
and Windsor castles get something a
little extra but Christmas puddings it
might not sound like much but they're
actually pretty delicious
a world without garlic and onions is the
world's most people wouldn't want to
live in but that's exactly the kind of
situation the Royals find themselves in
Camilla parker-bowles explained on an
episode of MasterChef Australia that the
reasoning is partly about hygiene and
politeness garlic-breath doesn't make
the best impression it said that the
Queen's personal dislike of garlic has
something to do with the ban as well but
there's a bit of good news The Daily
Express says that this rule only applies
to ultra formal settings like state
banquets still if you're dining with the
Queen even casually it's probably still
off-limits
it's no secret the Royals like their
eggs
I need 50 eggs
nobody can eat 58 according to Prince
Charles's former chef there was one
unbreakable rule for preparing his eggs
they needed to be boiled for exactly
four minutes eggs are served with every
royal breakfast and 40 but it's usually
brown eggs for the Queen
she says they simply taste better the
royal obsession with eggs goes back at
least to Queen Victoria who used to eat
her boiled egg from a gold cup with a
gold spoon which is possibly the
fanciest way to eat such a normal food
[Music]
if you expect royal dinners to be all
caviar and steaks you might be surprised
to find that's not always the case
former chef Carolyn rabe revealed just
what got served up to Royals when it was
time for just small private meals saying
that they preferred gain they killed
themselves and hunts vegetables from
their gardens and wild mushrooms
gathered from the properties when it
came to what they actually wanted to eat
it was small portions of hearty meals
and best of all there were no fancy
dinner settings meals also included
roast chicken and fish fingers for the
boys who sometimes pushed their way into
the kitchen themselves to whip up some
spaghetti and when it was just the
family meals were often entrees in front
of the fire with presumably no rules
about which Forks were off-limits
[Music]