Food fit for a Queen
Cooking for the Queen was undoubtedly the proudest moment of Michel Bourdin's 26-year tenure as chef des cuisines at London's Connaught hotel.
The occasion was a celebratory dinner to commemorate the centenary of the Connaught in 1997, and five years on Bourdin, now retired and speaking from his home in the South of France, continues to remember the event with great satisfaction. The highlight of the evening came at the end of the four-course dinner, when the Queen - on her only visit to the Connaught - dropped in on Bourdin and his 35-strong brigade in the kitchen. "That was the greatest honour," he says. "She was very happy to be there and seemed impressed by what was going on in the kitchen."
The pride experienced by Bourdin is one shared by all the chefs who spoke to Caterer about the various occasions they have cooked for the Queen. Although all discreet about her culinary likes and dislikes, a little about her eating habits is revealed. The suggestion, though, that the Queen is not particularly interested in gastronomy, as has been suggested in the national press, is dismissed.
Best efforts
"For someone who is subjected to the best efforts of chefs all the time it is understandable that she probably has become a little blasé about what she eats and would prefer to eat something simple," says Peter Gladwin, who, as chef-proprietor of outside caterer Party Ingredients, has cooked for the Queen on many occasions since 1978.
State events Gladwin has been involved with include the banquet to commemorate the 50th anniversary of VE Day, the luncheon to mark the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh's golden wedding anniversary and the 100th birthday celebratory lunch for the Queen Mother.
"You have to remember that the Queen may attend two or three functions in one day and so therefore is careful not to eat too much," he says. "She hates to waste food and so it is important that we don't serve portions that are too large."
Gladwin is working on what will be the centrepiece function of the Golden Jubilee celebrations - the Golden Jubilee state luncheon for 750 guests at the Guildhall in the City of London on Tuesday 4 June. And two days later he will cater for a further 1,500 covers at the Golden Jubilee garden party, hosted by the Archbishop of Canterbury at Lambeth Palace in honour of the Queen.
Although Gladwin is not allowed to reveal what will be on the menu at the Guildhall, he does say that it will be composed entirely of British produce and will be relatively simple. "It will be elegant, delicious and will represent the best of Britain," he says.
The menu was finalised following a tasting of 15 dishes - five for each of three courses - attended by representatives of Buckingham Palace, the City of London, and the Government.
The chef responsible for the first official function to mark the beginning of the Queen's Golden Jubilee celebrations was Rick Stein, chef-proprietor of the Seafood restaurant in Padstow, Cornwall, who prepared the dinner hosted by Tony and Cherie Blair at 10 Downing Street and attended by all the surviving British prime ministers from the Queen's reign.
"I was probably asked because they thought I was a safe bet," Stein says. "I had cooked at 10 Downing Street two months before for a dinner attended by Jacques Chirac and had received lots of compliments."
The only guideline Stein was given was to avoid foods that might be difficult for a public figure like the Queen to be seen eating, such as soup or spaghetti.
For Stein the best fish possible had to be the centrepiece of the meal and for him that meant Cornish turbot, cooked as simply as possible. "It just doesn't get any better," he says. "We roasted it and served it with hollandaise sauce, glazed carrots with tarragon, blanched spring cabbage tossed in butter with shallots and chives, and Jersey new potatoes with parsley and mint."
The starter was a dish of cured duck breast that Stein had gleaned from Australian chef Gay Bilson. Stein's version involved the duck breast being cured with salt, sugar and thyme before being poached, thinly sliced and served with melon and pickled ginger. "It was a kind of variation on Parma ham and melon," he says.
For pudding, Stein acceded to a request for something golden by preparing the Scottish dish cranachan, using golden raspberries and Chivas Regal malt whisky. Stein was accompanied to 10 Downing Street by two chefs from the Seafood restaurant, as well as staff from catering company Alison Price & Co, which handles many functions at the prime minister's home.
Stressful
"I was chuffed to bits to be asked to do the dinner, but there is no getting away from it that it was quite stressful," says Stein, who met the Queen and all the guests at the end of the evening.
While all the formal events she has attended are well recorded, what is less well known about are the Queen's private visits to restaurants. Because of the security involved, these are inevitably few and far between. However, one restaurant she has returned to on several occasions is the Waterside Inn in Bray, Berkshire, conveniently situated a few miles from Windsor Castle.
Chef-patron Michel Roux says the Queen likes to visit the Waterside Inn because it is somewhere she knows she will receive the utmost discretion. "She will eat with maybe six or seven guests in the private dining room and no one will know she is here, not even the majority of the staff," he says. "She will arrive by car and go directly through to the private dining room in something of an undercover operation - she loves that as she knows no one will bother her."
However, the one time when the press did discover that the Queen was to dine at the Waterside Inn was on the occasion of her 70th birthday. Six years later Roux is still cross that the news got out, although he is adamant that it was not leaked by any of his staff. "There are restaurants that do let the press know if a member of the Royal Family is eating there, but I've got no time for any of them. It shows a complete lack of education and respect," he says.
The leak led to the venue being switched to Frogmore, in the grounds of Windsor Castle, with Roux preparing the dinner originally planned. The menu included sole and lamb. While most of the 15 members of the Royal Family attending the dinner received a sabl‚ for dessert, the Queen and the Queen Mother were presented with a raspberry souffl‚ that Roux personally served to them.
Stylish but simple, with the best of ingredients
At the Connaught, Michel Bourdin's aim for the hotel's centenary celebrations in 1997 was to produce a meal using the best possible produce, but that was not too elaborate. "I also wanted to serve dishes which typified the Connaught's style, as well as ones that already had royal connections," he says.
For the starter, Bourdin prepared a dish that he had originally created when working 30 years earlier at Maxim's in Paris - pâté de turbot froid au homard, sauce pudeur (turbot pâté served with a diced lobster jelly and a light mayonnaise combined with tomato coulis).
To follow, Bourdin served consommé de volaille "Prince of Wales", a dish he had created for the Prince of Wales during a private visit to the hotel in 1994. The beef and chicken consommé incorporated brunoise of root vegetables and truffles and slices of chicken wings stuffed with a chicken mousse. Served in a consommé cup with a light puff-pastry topping, the dish was adapted from one served by Paul Bocuse to the then French president, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, at the Elysée Palace in Paris. "Bocuse told me he got the idea of the pastry crust from an English chicken pie," Bourdin says.
The main course had been created for the Queen's great-grandfather, Edward VII, when he dined at Maxim's in Paris. Noisette d'agneau du Kent "Edward VII" is basically a lamb version of tornedos Rossini. Two noisettes of lamb per portion were served, each noisette topped with a slice of goose liver and truffle. A light Madeira wine sauce accompanied the dish, together with a garnish of baby roast potatoes, fresh artichoke topped with a julienne of fresh truffles, and green beans.
For dessert - soufflé glace au citron vert - Bourdin returned to a dish he created for the Queen Mother when she made a private visit to the Connaught in 1992 to open the refurbished kitchens. The iced lime soufflé was served plated with a lime coulis.
Despite his retirement, Bourdin, a fervent royalist, has devised a pudding to celebrate the Queen's Golden Jubilee. Parfait glacé Golden Jubilee - vanilla parfait with a warm selection of strawberries, raspberries and redcurrants in a light syrup finished with dry peppercorns and decorated with a golden crown - will appear on the menu at the end of June at Wiltons in Jermyn Street, London, where Jerome Ponchelle, Bourdin's replacement at the Connaught, is executive chef.
Queen prefers to do lunch
During the 50 years of her reign, the Queen has hosted 88 state banquets, as well as being guest of honour at countless lunches and dinners, both in the UK and during her 251 official overseas visits to 128 different countries.
Most are formal occasions, although she prefers to attend luncheons now rather than dinners, as their more informal nature are in closer keeping with the less formal approach that she has increasingly favoured as her reign has progressed.
