King Charles and Queen Camilla's Christmas Menu Is Blasted as 'Boring' by Former Royal Chef
King Charles III and Queen Camilla's Christmas menu at Sandringham has been characterized as 'boring' by a former royal chef.
King Charles III and Queen Camilla are set to host their second Sandringham Christmas lunch as king and queen, but their menu is not winning rave reviews.
"They're actually boring when it comes to festivities. They didn't do hams or anything, just traditional turkeys," former royal chef Darren McGrady told an outlet.
"We did three turkeys for the Queen and her family in the royal dining room, one for the children's nursery, and then more for the 100 or so staff, so everyone had a Christmas lunch," McGrady added when discussing his time working as a chef for the late Queen Elizabeth II.
The luncheon will follow a round of pre-lunch drinks, which is a tradition the royal family has held for decades. The day typically starts around 9 AM for the monarch, consort, attending royals, and any other guests. After breakfast, the royal congregation attends an 11 AM Christmas Day service at St Mary Magdalene Church on the grounds of Sandringham House, which has also become a tradition in recent years.
Members of the local community and royal fans gather near the long walkway to the church to watch the royal family walk to and from the main house. After drink and lunch, the King's annual speech to the nation airs at 3 PM, and it is optional as to whether guests watch the speech or not. The late Queen made it mandatory for all royals and guests to gather around the television to watch her speech unfold.
In addition to standard practices, Christmas at Sandringham also comes with some strange rituals that have developed over the centuries.
One custom is called "the weigh-in," which was a particular favorite of Elizabeth II's and one of Diana, Princess of Wales's most dreaded. Starting during the reign of King Edward VII in the 1900s, the tradition finds guests weighing themselves on scales as they arrive and later depart from the grand country home. This was the King's wish to ensure his family and guests were "well-fed" during their stay.
Diana allegedly despised the weird practice, in large part because she struggled with both bulimia and anorexia during the 1980s. It is unknown if King Charles III has maintained the ritual, but it is believed he kept the tradition of the royal family all gathering to open their presents on Christmas Eve and not the next morning as many of his subjects do. This is a German practice first reported to have begun during the reign of Queen Victoria in the nineteenth century.
Unlike Elizabeth II, who stayed at Sandringham until early February each year, King Charles is expected to move his court back to London in mid-January.
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Daily Express reported on McGrady's comments.
