Queen Elizabeth Would Eat Four Meals a Day—And Would Ration One Thing "Until It Was All Gone"

(Image credit: Getty Images)

published 6 October 2025

Queen Elizabeth wasn't exactly known as a foodie, favoring traditional, simple meals instead of overly fussy royal dishes. But even though she ate a relatively healthy diet, former royal chef Darren McGrady said there was one particular indulgence she couldn't resist.

"She is absolutely a chocoholic," McGrady told Hello in 2016 of the late Queen, who died in September 2022. "Anything we put on the menu that had chocolate on, she would choose, especially chocolate perfection pie [a layered chocolate pie with white and dark chocolate and chocolate shavings]."

There's one chocolate biscuit cake that was a particular favorite, with McGrady telling Today in 2017, "It is her favorite cake that she eats until it is all gone. If there is anything left when she has it at Buckingham Palace, it then goes to Windsor Castle so she can finish it there. I use to travel on the train from London to Windsor Castle with the biscuit cake in a tin on my knee. It was half eaten.”

Queen Elizabeth wearing a blue dress and hat drinking tea at a table — Queen Elizabeth is pictured on a royal visit to Northern Ireland in 1977.

Queen Elizabeth wearing a pink suit drinking tea at a table — Queen Elizabeth is pictured enjoying tea at a private home in Scotland in 1999.

In a Q&A on his YouTube channel, the former palace chef—who cooked for the Royal Family for 15 years—McGrady said the late Queen would eat breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner each day. Afternoon tea, in particular, was an important part of her routine. "She'd always have afternoon tea wherever she was in the world," he said in a video sharing his scone recipe.

"I remember being on the Royal Yacht Britannia, we flew out to Australia...and it was like five o'clock in the morning, but to The Queen, it was five o'clock in the afternoon so it was time for tea. So, my first job was making scones." He explained that Queen Elizabeth "would have plain scones one day, and fruit the next" and he would incorporate ingredients like raisins and sultanas.

Speaking on behalf of Heart Bingo, McGrady recently said that it was "difficult" for him to convince the late Queen "to try and get new things on the menu." He continued, "If I had said, 'Would you like to try kangaroo?,' I think she would have thrown the menu book at me."

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Kristin Contino is Marie Claire's Senior Royal and Celebrity editor. She's been covering royalty since 2018—including major moments such as the Platinum Jubilee, Queen Elizabeth II’s death and King Charles III's coronation—and places a particular focus on the British Royal Family's style and what it means.

Prior to working at Marie Claire, she wrote about celebrity and royal fashion at Page Six Style and covered royalty from around the world as chief reporter at Royal Central. Kristin has provided expert commentary for outlets including the BBC, Sky News, US Weekly, the Today Show and many others.

Kristin is also the published author of two novels, “The Legacy of Us” and “A House Full of Windsor.” She's passionate about travel, history, horses, and learning everything she can about her favorite city in the world, London.