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    One Royal Was Partial to a "Plain Baked Potato With a Scoop of Caviar" for Dinner, Says Former Royal Employee

    "It was often a solitary meal, served on a wheeled wooden trolley."

    Amy Mackelden's avatar
    By Amy Mackelden
    Published 8 June 2026 In News

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    A baked potato with caviar alongside Royal Family members joining Queen Elizabeth II on the Buckingham balcony, including Princess Diana in a white floral dress and matching hat and King Charles
    (Image credit: ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images/Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images)
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    The Royal Family has access to just about any food product they could ever desire. However, many royals have been known to enjoy "down-to-earth" meals and bizarre snacks, alongside healthy dishes. And according to a former royal employee, Princess Diana was partial to eating a baked potato with a rather unusual topping.

    In his book A Royal Duty, former royal butler Paul Burrell discussed some of the meals he'd serve to Princess Diana when he worked for her.

    "If she had been out...I would make her a cup of her favorite ginger root tea," Burrell shared.

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    The royal butler continued, "Dinner would be grilled trout or a pasta dish; or a plain [baked] potato with a scoop of caviar, served with a vinaigrette dressing."

    As for how Diana would receive her dinner, Burrell explained, "It was often a solitary meal, served on a wheeled wooden trolley that I pushed into the sitting room before the striped sofa where the princess sat in her white toweling robe."

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    "Dinner would be grilled trout or a pasta dish; or a plain [baked] potato with a scoop of caviar, served with a vinaigrette dressing."

    (Image credit: Getty Images)

    A Royal Duty

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    Burrell continued, "I had already pulled the television out of its cabinet at the bottom of the bookcase and into position. Evenings were the loneliest, quietest times for the princess. The chef had gone. Her dresser had gone."

    With everyone else having left for the day, Burrell allegedly spent time becoming friends with Diana.

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    "At the day's end, as the princess wound down from an energetic, engagements-filled morning and afternoon, I got to know her better on a personal level," the former butler said.

    Princess Margaret wearing a green dress smiling and talking to Princess Diana, wearing a green suit and hat, and Sarah Ferguson wearing a white jacket

    "It was often a solitary meal, served on a wheeled wooden trolley."

    (Image credit: Getty Images)

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    He continued, "She was relaxed, not fraught, and talkative. It became clear, as I wheeled in her two-course evening meal, that with William and Harry at boarding school she preferred not to be left alone. 'Stay a while,' she said, more times than I can remember."

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    Weekend Editor

    Amy Mackelden is the weekend editor at Marie Claire, where she covers celebrity and royal family news. She was the weekend editor at Harper’s BAZAAR for three years, where she covered breaking celebrity and entertainment news, royal stories, fashion, beauty, and politics. Prior to that, she spent a year as the joint weekend editor for Marie Claire, ELLE, and Harper's BAZAAR, and two years as an entertainment writer at Bustle. Her additional bylines include Cosmopolitan, People, The Independent, HelloGiggles, Biography, Shondaland, Best Products, New Statesman, Heat, and The Guardian. Her work has been syndicated by publications including Town & Country, Good Housekeeping, Esquire, Delish, Oprah Daily, Country Living, and Women's Health. Her celebrity interviews include Jennifer Aniston, Jessica Chastain, the cast of Selling Sunset, Emma Thompson, Jessica Alba, and Penn Badgley. In 2015, she delivered an academic paper at Kimposium, the world's first Kardashian conference.

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