son has revealed what a breakfast fit for royalty really looks like, and it might not be a lavish as you'd think.
appeared on Breakfast today (October 4) to discuss how the royals will start their day and what the will plump for first thing in the morning.
When you think of royal dining, you may think of banquets, a whole array of dishes and multiple courses of the finest foods, but Tom has revealed his mother simply enjoys a good old-fashioned bowl of steamy porridge in the morning.
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In a chat with BBC Breakfast presenters and , Tom said porridge is the King and Queen's go-to during the cold winter mornings and is finished off with a generous dollop of homemade honey from Camilla's bees. The author was chatting about his latest cookbook, Cooking and the Crown, which covers the history of food within the - from the reign of Queen Victoria beginning in 1837 and Edward VII at the turn of the century, to Charles and Camilla.
When pressed about meals in the current royal household, Tom said: "There are lots of simple recipes in the book." Looking at a bowl of porridge from the book, Tom said: "That's what my mother eats in the winter. Porridge with her own honey as she has bees," host Charlie then asked if there was anything special about the porridge, to which Tom replied: "Nope, it's just good old fashioned porridge made with milk and cream and a bit of honey."
Tom shared the simple recipe which you'll find in the book, made with Scottish porridge oats, full-fat milk, a pinch of salt and honey. The book looks at how royals have eaten throughout the years, and he looks back on the hungry bellies of previous monarchs, including Queen Victoria who was renowned for her banquets.
The author explained to , that dinner time with Queen Victoria would include six courses "starting with two kinds of soup, going through fish, 'entrees', 'releves' (or 'removes', a mixture of roast meats and more elaborate confections), rotis (more 'roasts', usually smaller birds such as quail) and, finally, 'entremets', a selection of vegetables and puddings."
This contrasts hugely to health-conscious Charles and Camilla's diets, as well as the late Queen, who Tom deemed to be "not a great eater". He shared: "[She] was just as happy with a salmon fishcake, a mild curry or scrambled eggs on toast."
He also highlighted how the King and Queen are "mushroom experts" especially when they are visiting and will go mushroom foraging.
According to Parker Bowles, Camilla's lunches are light too; often the chicken broth - another recipe detailed in the book - or smoked salmon. Charles famously doesn't eat lunch at all, but he eats dried fruit and honey for breakfast and enjoys mutton very much.
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