Here’s Why Queen Camilla Doesn’t Cook for King Charles

It’s no secret that King Charles and Queen Camilla have had a splashy relationship. They famously conducted a decades-long affair that was an open secret in the British aristocracy. Even after securing divorces from their respective spouses in the 1990s, they still had to wait until 2005 to get married. Now, 20 years later, they live happily ever after as King Charles and Queen Camilla. The couple will celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary in Italy next month.

When they aren’t working on official state business at Buckingham Palace, Charles and Camilla maintain a royal residence at Clarence House in London. Even though the 19th-century house has a modern kitchen, you’d be hard-pressed to ever find Camilla there.

Why doesn’t Queen Camilla cook for King Charles?

Apparently, the King and Queen’s schedules are simply too busy to accommodate a lot of at-home cooking. Menus are planned weeks in advance, and sometimes, their various work engagements keep them from seeing each other for meals. Plus, they have a team of expert chefs who can cook up anything that they want.

Her son, Tom, mentioned this recently in an interview with Hello. “I don’t think there’s a lot of ‘honey, I’m home, what’s for dinner?’ I think it’s a bit more planned than that,” he said.

In fact, Camilla’s schedule is often so tightly packed that it takes a lot of planning for her son to drop by! But he did say that his mother is an excellent cook and that her roast chicken was a staple growing up.

What is Queen Camilla’s roast chicken recipe?

Queen Camilla is fond of a proper Sunday roast and uses this chicken recipe. Her secret? Tom says, “My mother insists that chopping off that dangly bit above the cavity and putting it on top of the bird improves the flavor.” I asked Taste of Home editor and chef Lindsay Mattison to elaborate on this, and she said chicken skin contains fat, which renders as it cooks and self-bastes the bird with schmaltz.

There you have it, a royal tip for the next time you roast a chicken!

Roast chicken is surprisingly popular in the royal family. It’s a dinner staple that Kate Middleton loves to cook, too. While it’s too bad that Queen Camilla doesn’t have time to roast her famous chicken, I have no doubts that the royal couple eats incredibly well.