Cooking and the Crown: Royal Recipes from Queen Victoria to King Charles III

This practical survey of British royal fare since the early 19th century focuses less on  grand state banquets and more on the everyday eating of the Kings, Queens, and their kin.

Tom Parker Bowles, restaurant critic for The Mail on Sunday and the author of eight previous cookbooks, has an advantage of access, since his mother is Queen Camilla and several of her recipes are here, from her simple breakfast porridge to a rather improvisational chicken soup.

But there are also chatty stories of improvisation by cooks pressed into whipping up a midnight snack, favorite prelunch cocktails, and eaters who were accustomed to having things done their way. King Edward VI, we learn, could not abide pasta and for Queen Elizabeth II, “coconut was a flavor that was not enjoyed.”

Parker Bowles bibliography cites nearly forty earlier books, a testament to the diligence of his research beyond family connections.

Hardcover. Color photographs throughout.