By By Dane Roberts Wans On Bookreview
Warning: Make sure you have eaten before you read this book. If you haven’t, you may find yourself drooling on the pages.
It is subtitled “Recipes & Remembrances from a Palace Kitchen.” “Eating Royally” is a combination cookbook and remembrances. It can be seen as a cookbook because it contains recipes from the palace kitchen. You can read it as a remembrance because Darren McGrady, the personal chef to Princess Diana, tells the story of his years as a chef for the royal family in a linear manner as well as the four years for Princess Diana after her divorce. All this in seven chapters and over 200 pages.
It seems memories of Princess Diana are still being written. She has left quite an impact on the world. People still want to know things about her. What makes this different is now we have a book giving us some of her favorite food recipes.
For British subjects and others, Diana was a delightful person who didn’t quite fit the garb of royalty. She cared more for people and organizations. She spent more time with her boys than she did with the royal house.
Some of these recipes look easy to make. All you need is the right ingredients and hungry people. Pictures are included of some of the dishes, so you know what they look like. Cold Lemon Soufflé and the Old English Apple Pie look good, and they would both serve six.
A recipe for that old perennial Fruit Cake, in this case called Christmas cake, is also included. You would need to start it back in September to really get the full goodness out of it as you will need the three months to let it mature.
Mr. McGrady shares little stories that humanize the princess and her family. One story concerns the things her children would do to the chefs. He tells that one Christmas, William and Harry each received large water guns. And the targets were usually the chefs. The boys would soak the chefs with the water. So they decided to fight back. “But the boys would laugh and run away, carefully plotting out their next attack.” So McGrady and another chef, Arthur Smith, went and bought water guns from a local toy store. But they got caught carrying the guns back.
“Out of nowhere an officer appeared. “What have you got there?”
“Oh, these,” Arthur replied, “These are for William and Harry. We are going to shoot them as they come out for tea.”
“Best take them back to your rooms, lads. Right now,” was the reply.
This book starts out giving us an overview of the Royal Year. Each individual chapter is preceded by a picture of the royal residence lived in during a season of the year. Recipes are sprinkled throughout each chapter. Personal pictures are interspersed throughout the book. The pictures of the dishes that can be made following a fair amount of the recipes given are what could get you drooling.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 25, 2008. Read the original PDF.