Cooking for Princess Diana: Her personal chef speak
Cooking for Princess Diana: Her personal chef speaks
By Kim Hjelmgaard, USA TODAY, Aug. 24, 2017
Darren McGrady, Princess Diana's former personal chef, poses with a portrait of her.(Photo: Darren McGrady)
Darren McGrady, 55, was Princes Diana's personal chef from 1993 until she died in 1997. Before that, he was personal chef to Queen Elizabeth II. For the past 20 years McGrady has lived in Dallas, where he first worked as a chef for a private family then started his own catering business. "The Royal Chef at Home," a follow up to his first cookbook, "Eating Royally," will be published Sept. 1.
In an interview with USA TODAY, McGrady recalled Princes Diana's interest in healthy eating, meals with her sons, princes William and Harry, and how she inspired him to do charity work. Here are his words, edited and condensed for clarity:
My first job at Buckingham Palace was right at the very bottom — chef No. 20 of 20. I worked on the vegetable section cooking for palace staff. It was horrible. Frozen vegetables for 300. I met Princess Diana at Balmoral Castle (the queen's vacation home in Scotland) and over time, I became a friendly, familiar face to her, although I was never her friend. I was staff. I never called her Diana. It was "Your Royal Highness" to the end, even after she lost the title and would say, "you don't have to call me that."
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I don't know if anyone else on NT has had the great privilege and honour of having met Princess Diana other than me. While she was in Toronto she took a tour of a school for disabled children, which is where and when this photo was taken. I was there because I was the Chief Barker (President) at the time of the Variety Club of Ontario charity, one of the benefactors of the school. She walked right over to me, shook my hand, and asked what were my duties there, and I told her who I was, and she said, "Oh yes, I saw your coach outside." (We had provided the school with a wheelchair van that was in front). She was familiar with them because she was familiar with the London Variety Club and the many vans they have donated for the use of disabled children. While we were speaking together, NOBODY TOOK OUR PHOTO, and I'm really pissed about that. I can say that up close she is more gorgeous than any of her photos have shown.
In the photo, I am the man on the far right with gray hair (more than I have these days) and a white id label on my lapel.
She was a complete human being: she genuinely served her role as "unifying figure for the nation", with events like yours filling her calendar... and at the same time she felt buried in that role and connived rather nastily to escape.
I have trouble feeling sorry for her. She was raised to the role she married into, and knew from day one all that was implied. She could not plead ignorance, only her own error. The royal family enjoys incredible comfort... in exchange for being dutiful figureheads. That deal is very clear. She signed up... and then deserted.
Charles deserted her.
That's true, and unpleasant. But the same has happened to other royals. It's part of the package.