The Queen May Never Have Eaten Pizza, According to Royal Chef

peking, china october 13 the queen adjusting her tiara whilst reading the menu before dinner is served at a banquet held in her honour during her visit with prince philip to peking, china the queen is wearing queen marys girls of great britain and ireland tiara photo by tim graham photo library via getty images

(Image credit: Tim Graham)

last updated 4 September 2021

According to former royal chef Darren McGrady (opens in new tab), the Queen is not a fan of pizza.
During the 15 years he worked for the royal family (opens in new tab), McGrady says he never saw the Queen eat the popular dish.
Not all royals are anti-pizza though. McGrady says that he made pizza for Prince William "all the time" once he left Buckingham Palace and went to cook for Kensington Palace.

The Queen has a personal chef (opens in new tab) who can cook anything she wants, basically on demand. Unlike most of us, Her Majesty never demands pizza, apparently.

In an interview with Us Weekly (opens in new tab), former royal chef Darren McGrady (opens in new tab) opened up about the Queen's eating habits and revealed that she never asked him to make pizza for her.

“In the years that I cooked at [Buckingham] palace, the queen never had pizza," McGrady said. "I didn’t start cooking pizza until I moved across to Kensington palace."

For the last four years of McGrady's tenure as a royal chef, he worked at Kensington Palace, cooking for the late Princess Diana (opens in new tab) and her family—including, of course, her two young sons, Prince William and Prince Harry. And, when your job is personal chef to two young boys, pizza becomes a specialty of yours very quickly, obviously.

"I [made] pizza all the time for William," McGrady revealed. "In my second cookbook, The Royal Chef at Home, there’s a chicken tikka masala pizza [recipe] because, he loves Indian food. The pizza combined the two."

The Queen's pizza-eating status is still a mystery to this day. In 2019, Kate Middleton made pizza with a group of young children (opens in new tab) for a royal engagement and was asked if the Queen had ever eaten pizza herself.

"You know, that’s such a good question. I don’t know," Kate replied (opens in new tab) at the time. "I don’t know. Maybe next time I see her, shall I ask?"

This is one of the great mysteries of our time, truly.

Kayleigh Roberts is a freelance writer and editor with more than 10 years of professional experience. Her byline has appeared in Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, ELLE, Harper’s Bazaar, The Atlantic, Allure, Entertainment Weekly, MTV, Bustle, Refinery29, Girls’ Life Magazine, Just Jared, and Tiger Beat, among other publications. She's a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.