Queen Elizabeth II has eaten jam sandwiches every day since she was a child, according to her former private chef.
Darren McGrady claims on his YouTube channel that the monarch prefers a strawberry jam made from fruit picked from her Balmoral Castle grounds in Scotland.
“The Queen was served jam pennies in the nursery as a little girl. She’s had them for afternoon tea ever since,” he says in a recently surfaced video released in July last year. The sandwiches are made from bread with a little butter and jam, then cut into circles the size of an old British penny.
Queen Elizabeth II has eaten jam sandwiches every day since she was a toddler, according to her former private chef. Tim Graham Photo Library via Get
The Queen prefers a strawberry jam made from fruit picked from her Balmoral Castle grounds in Scotland. Getty Images
The sandwiches are made from bread with a little butter and jam and then cut into circles the size of an old British penny. Getty Images
Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and King Hassan will eat with their hands as they attend a desert feast in Morocco October 27, 1980. Getty Images
As part of Afternoon Tea’s distinguished tradition, McGrady – who says he was chef to the Queen for 11 years – also revealed the monarch’s solution to a well-known dilemma for British scone lovers: jam or cream first?
“The queen was always jam first,” he said in a separate video. “The jam continued, followed by this delicious clotted cream.”
In addition to jam, the 96-year-old monarch has always had a fondness for fresh strawberries. “The Queen would eat strawberries three or four nights a week in Balmoral if they were in season,” he says.
“The Queen would eat strawberries three or four nights a week in Balmoral when they were in season,” McGrady said. AFP via Getty Images
When it comes to scones, the queen is supposed to put the jam on first before the cream. In pictures via Getty Images
McGrady says he was Queen Elizabeth II’s chef de cuisine for 11 years, per AP
Queen Elizabeth II also reportedly drinks alcohol on a daily basis. AFP via Getty Images
But woe to him who tried to give her berries out of season. A January batch at the dinner table would mean “heads off,” McGrady joked.
The palace declined to comment on the Queen’s sandwich preferences.