Greek chef Nikos Koulousias, one of the many chefs collaborating with the Buckingham Palace, spoke to media about his collaboration with Queen Elizabeth II, her eating habits and the moment they were informed to be prepared for the worst on Thursday.
He that they were informed about the Queen’s death 35-40 minutes before it was officially announced. “They had told us to prepare our black uniforms,” Koulousias told life-style TV magazine Happy Day.
The Greek chef who has been working with Buckingham Palace since 2017, and was one of the many chefs who supervised the Queen’s diet.
Asked about any changes in her diet due to health problems, he said that there were no changes to cause concern although the late Queen’s meals had become less due to age.
“In the morning she would eat tuna sandwiches, two organic black eggs and a very light lunch,” he said.
Although her menu was monitored by doctors, there were times when she herself would ask for something outside of her diet, such as marmalade, preferably fig marmalade.
“What she really liked was our spinach pie and pies with fresh phyllo-dough. in general,” he added.
Regarding the Queen’s food preferences, Koulousias said “we were free to create anything that had to do with sweets. Rice, spaghetti and potatoes were strictly forbidden. From then on we were free to do whatever we wanted as long as it was written in French. All messages had to be with French-Austrian recipes and had to be cooked seasonally. In other words, we could not put on the menu cherries and strawberries in the winter. Whatever we cooked, we had to be in direct contact with the royal farms and be informed about what they have at the moment and from there we sourced and prepared.”
He added that the late British monarch was “very fond of tuna fish with freshly cut cucumber in the morning. At lunchtime she wanted something very light as an intermediate, such as Scottish salmon, crayfish, asparagus. For dinner it was two slices of crust-less toast and fig jam. She didn’t like us cooking with garlic at all,” the close associate of the 96-year-old Queen Elizabeth then added.
The Queen was very kind to the team and respected their work, chef Koulousias added.
Chef Koulousias collaborates with restaurants chosen by the Royal family and are place on the Crown List. “Only these restaurants can supply the Palace with the seal of Royal Trust,” he said in an older interview.
