Diana's chef spills beans on royal eating habits

Darren McGrady worked as a personal chef for many years in the Royal Family, starting work at Buckingham Palace just after the marriage of Prince Charles and the Princess of Wales.

McGrady prepared meals for the Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip for eleven years. He also worked under Diana for the last years of her life.

When he worked for Diana, she was focused on regularly going to the gym and was focused on healthy eating, favouring McGrady's tomato mousse and stuffed vegetables.

Diana also enjoyed McGrady's bread and butter pudding, which was a favourite of her sons, Princes William and Harry.

"They loved that and the princess would dig in too," McGrady told CTV's Canada AM.

However, Diana was not too enthralled with hunting, McGrady recounts. When she returned with a deer from a hunting expedition on one occasion, she instructed McGrady to send a cheese and toast sandwich to her room.

McGrady remembered Diana didn't want to be anywhere near the kitchen. "(She said) 'I can't come down. It will be looking at me.'"

The Queen, on the other hand, had no problem eating game, McGrady said.

"Anything they shot she would eat. She loved all the game, the partridge, the pheasant, the deer. (She was also) a chocaholic, that's why my book is full of chocolate recipes," McGrady said.

The recipes he prepared and memories of his royal tenure have been collected in a new book called "Eating Royally."

McGrady donated his entire advance and royalties of the book to the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, because of Diana's AIDS charity work.

"(Diana) didn't mind people using her name as long as it was to raise money for charity and children and AIDS were two of her charitable goals," McGrady said. "And I think putting the two together, we can raise a lot of money for charity."

After Diana's death in 1997, McGrady declined an invitation to become Prince Charles' personal chef. He now works as a personal chef in Dallas, Tex.