Queen's 'very important' afternoon tea order revealed by royal chef

The Queen had a very specific request for how her afternoon tea was served, a former Buckingham Palace chef has revealed. 

• The Queen insisted that one dish in her afternoon tea was served in a very specific order, her former royal chef has revealed. 
• Her Majesty 'religiously' enjoyed the pre-dinner meal every day, according to Buckingham Palace's ex-head chef Darren McGrady. 
• In other royal news, Duchess Camilla delayed for royal engagement as thousands flock to summer solstice celebrations.
  

The Queen has never been a fussy eater – but when it comes to afternoon tea, she does have some very niche preferences. 

Despite holding down a busy schedule for the majority of her 70-year-long reign, Her Majesty has reportedly observed the English upper-class tradition of eating sandwiches at 4 pm every day for the past several decades. 

Her former chef has revealed that the 96-year-old 'religiously' enjoyed the culinary meal throughout his 11 years working for her at Buckingham Palace and Balmoral. 

"The Queen loved afternoon tea, I would say it’s probably one of her favorite meals," Darren McGrady told Coffee Friend (opens in new tab), after confirming that she never missed it –regardless of her location or commitments. 

"The Queen had afternoon tea every day, wherever she was in the world. If we were at Buckingham Palace and she was on her own for tea, or whether she had Prince William come and join her, or whether she had a garden party for 6,000 people, or even if she was on the Royal Britannia in Australia." 

As for what the Queen liked to eat during these afternoon teas, it looks like she had quite the penchant for the menu's sweeter bites. McGrady explains that, while the royal matriarch was 'frugal' and 'by no means a foodie', she refused to deprive herself of her chefs' baked treats. 

"Every day, she would have what we called a 'cut cake’ – meaning she would cut a slice of it off – small cakes like eclairs or raspberry tartlets," he told the Telegraph. 

The Queen also had a strange request when it came to scones, insisting that the same flavors were never served two days in a row. 

"There had to be two types of sandwiches on the menu, there were scones – one day they would be plain scones, the next day they would be fruit scones with raisins," McGrady recalled.  “It was really important the way they alternated. So much so, that the chefs at Buckingham Palace would ring Windsor Castle on a Monday morning and ask what flavor scones the Queen had the day before, just to be sure we didn’t serve the same."