A chef who has cooked dishes for the late Queen and other members of the royal family has created a special menu for today’s coronation which he will serve from his Keswick-based catering wagon.
Fifty-eight-year-old Robert Wood was a senior sous chef based at Buckingham Palace for 12 years, from 1988 to 2000, and was part of a 22-strong team that served up meals for Her Majesty along with banquets and barbecues at Balmoral, Sandringham and on the royal yacht Britannia.
He is now “living the dream” working in the cafe at Keswick Climbing Wall, part of the Newlands Adventure Centre enterprise, and will be dishing out Royal-themed meals from Woody’s Waggon over this special weekend.
On the menu board will be coronation chicken royale, Balmoral venison burgers and a royal yacht butty which is basically a goujon fish finger with a rocket sauce. He will also be inviting questions from customers about his time at Buckingham Palace.
It is all a far cry from his time cooking for world leaders such as George Bush and Nelson Mandela, celebrities and stars of stage and screen.
Robert described it as the stand out period of his life and let the Reminder into some of the preferences of the Queen’s palate.
“A lot of what she preferred was classical French and very seasonal,” said Robert, who lives in a converted barn in Penrith. “She would only have English strawberries and would only eat asparagus during the six-week period that asparagus grows. She would also have white peaches from Windsor and salmon from the River Dee.
“She was also partial to a best end cutlet of lamb with a red currant jelly when she was on her own.
“But there was a list of things that you could not serve her like garlic and curries because they can be smelt on the breath and she talked to a lot of people.”
He said that she had a little bound burgundy menu book that the footman would take to her and she would communicate with the kitchen by making notes in it in pencil or making a comment about her preferences.
‘’People would say: ‘Why is she not huge because of all the food that she was eating,’ said Robert. “But she would eat regularly but would not have platefuls. She was quite minimalistic and always had fresh salad and vegetables.”
The family also enjoyed an evening barbecue at Balmoral and occasionally at Sandringham and the late Duke of Edinburgh would usually arrive at the butchery at around 5pm to discuss what meats he wanted.
Robert was in the RAF before taking up his royal duties and the first commercial flight he ever took was with the Queen on Concorde on a state visit to the United States. He also travelled the world on the royal yacht Britannia and was at Buckingham Palace when Princess Diana died and was at Windsor when the devastating fire broke out.
“It was a very interesting period to be at Buckingham Palace. It was the stand out period of my life.”
