Royal chef reveals Queen Elizabeth's daily diet and fav meals

London, May 31 (ANI): A former royal chef has offered a rare glimpse into the normal diet of the Queen when she is not banqueting.

Darren McGrady revealed that Her Majesty eats four modest meals a day, hates potatoes, loves jam pennies, and rounds off the day with a gin and Dubonnet.

For breakfast she likes Cornflakes or Special K, with a spoonful or two of apricots, prunes or some macadamia nuts from a Tupperware box, or, when at Balmoral, woodland strawberries.

Sometimes she has a boiled egg, or just toast and marmalade, with Darjeeling tea.

The monarch usually eats breakfast alone at 9am because the Duke of Edinburgh prefers to eat a little earlier at 8.30am

A typical lunch, served at 1pm, would be fish, such as a grilled Dover sole, on a bed of wilted spinach or with courgettes.

Then there would be afternoon tea of cakes, scones and sandwiches.

McGrady said that he favourite cakes were honey and cream sponge, ginger, fruit and the chocolate biscuit cake - that Prince William also chose to be served at his wedding reception.

At least two varieties of sandwich were offered, such as cucumber, smoked salmon, egg mayonnaise, ham and mustard. The crusts cut off.

She also had her favourite jam pennies, tiny raspberry jam sandwiches cut into circles the size of an old English penny and washed down with Earl Grey tea.

In the evening "she'd normally have a gin and Dubonnet; one part gin and two parts Dubonnet," McGrady told the Times.

Then for dinner there would be game or fish such as pheasant from Sandringham or venison or salmon from Balmoral.

For pudding, fresh fruit, particularly the white peaches grown in greenhouses at Windsor Castle.

She was so partial to these that she would have them sent up to her when she was at Balmoral.

"She didn't always eat everything," the Telegraph quoted McGrady as saying.

"She'd maybe have one or two tiny sandwiches, and sometimes the scones she'd actually just crumble on the carpet for the dogs to eat," he said.

The chef also added that the Queen hated waste and was "very thrifty"- and once sent back a lemon used as garnish saying it could be used again by the kitchen. (ANI)