The Queen’s chef of 11 years has revealed the royal corgis had the strictest dietary regime during his time working for Her Majesty.
While the 95-year-old monarch's meals are simply what she desires on the day, her beloved pooches have their menus composed a month in advance by canine experts.
According to Darren McGrady, who cooked at Buckingham Palace, Sandringham and Balmoral, the chefs are under strict orders to follow the custom pet plans to the letter.
Alongside meal prep for family and guests, Michelin-trained cooks prepare lavish dog bowls of finely cut duck, rabbit and vegetables that alternate day-to-day.
In an interview with GB News, Mr McGrady said: “The Queen didn't have any advisers at all. I think the only real advisers were actually on the corgi menu!
Queen Elizabeth II with some of her corgis walking the Cross Country course during the second day of the Windsor Horse Trials
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Queen Elizabeth II sitting with her corgis, at Virginia Water to watch competitors, including Prince Philip in the Marathon of the European Driving Championship, part of the Royal Windsor Horse Show
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"She would actually have people advising on what they're having, whether that was lamb, chicken, liver or beef.”
The comments come as Former Labour Health Secretary Alan Johnson confessed to once eating biscuits prepared for the posh dogs while sat next to the monarch during lunch.
Mr Johnson said he was clueless to the fact he was munching on the corgis' food at Windsor castle in 2008, until he mentioned to then Welsh Secretary Paul Murphy how he had “particularly enjoyed the cheese and the unusual dark biscuits”.
According to Robert Hardman, writing in his new book “The Queen of Our Times", Mr Murphy replied: “No, the dark biscuits were for the corgis!"
The Queen’s love of corgis is well known. It's reported she's owned more than 30 of the breeded pets ever since being gifted her first one “Susan” as an 18th birthday present.
Queen Elizabeth II and Duke of Edinburgh at Windsor joined by Sugar, one of the Royal corgis
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Mr McGrady, speaking on behalf of UK coffee retailer Coffee Friend, added the Queen's diet was only regulated by her unwavering discipline and that she had an attitude of “eating to live rather than living to eat”.
He said: “It shocked me when I worked there that we didn't have a dietician that said each member of the Royal Family had this or that. There was none!
“We would simply put suggestions into a menu book and the Queen would put lines through the ones she didn't want."
He continued: "She'd have breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner, four meals a day. She's five foot two and tiny, but she was disciplined. It was the discipline of eating a small portion.”
The main request from Her Majesty, Mr McGrady said, was that the cooks should incorporate as much fresh produce picked form the the grounds of her properties as possible.
A favourite to be put in her deserts were the strawberries grown in the Balmoral estate.
