Visen Anenden served as head chef to King Charles for nearly a decade, and he said that during his “phenomenal” role, he learned “a good lesson” about sustainability and organic cooking. Anenden, who shared that The King is “extremely interested in what he eats,” revealed that for the royals, food was one area where they could always call the shots.

Speaking on behalf of Heart Bingo Online, the former royal chef said that King Charles is “a real foodie.”

“He’s very seasonal, and everything comes from the estate,” Anenden continued, adding that The King “always wants to know where something has come from, so menus were very particular.” When the royals stay at Balmoral, for example, they would eat a different style of food than at Highgrove, where “it would be what you could source from the garden.”

“You really learn how the farm-to-fork aspect works, and it’s a phenomenal lesson for a chef,” Anenden added of The King’s penchant for fresh, local food.

The former royal chef revealed that despite having access to a bountiful supply of foods, The King and Queen Camilla both show restraint with their eating. “The thing with the royals is that they don’t eat a lot,” he shared. “It was always small portions. It’s never substantial, loaded plates at all, never.”

When asked why he thought that was the case, Anenden mused that it had to do with “control.”

“They’re very conscious of their diet,” he said. “It isn’t just them, but also lots of private households I’ve worked for—they all eat small portions. It can be to do with control. People like King Charles, because they have control over the food, that’s the only aspect of their life that they can control.”