Prince Charles Has Very Specific Rules For How He Takes A Cup Of Tea
Prince Charles Has Very Specific Rules For How He Takes A Cup Of Tea
We know what all the royals actually eat in a day, but how they do it is a bit more of a mystery. Besides the formal engagements we see all of them at, there are tons of super strict royal protocols around eating and food. Here are just a few of them.
Prince Charles likes his tea prepared a certain way.
It's no secret that the royals love tea, but Prince Charles likes his done in a very particular way. Dumfries Houses’s hospitality manager Evan Samson told the Sunday Times that Charles likes his made with loose tea leaves in a teapot, with the ratio being one teaspoon of leaves per each cup of tea, plus one for the pot, according to Express. For green tea, the water should be heated to 70C degrees Celsius and it should be 100 degrees Celsius for Earl Grey. He also loves organic honey added straight to the teapot and the cups arranged just so with a teaspoon under the handle.
The Queen is very specific about the guest count at dinner parties.
The Queen has a rule about how many dinner guests are allowed to sit at the table. The number of guests has to be either more or less than 13, but never exactly 13. The Queen herself isn't necessarily superstitious about the notoriously "unlucky" number, but she's aware of the connotations it has in other cultures so she's sure to never have 13 people sitting around the dinner table.
Dinner is a strictly formal affair.
When dining with the Queen, no one shows up to the table to eat unless it's in full-on formalwear.
They have ways to let the staff know if they're not done eating.
If a member of the royal fam has to use the bathroom during an official function (let's use pregnant Kate here as an example), she's to simply say "excuse me" and not further explain where or why she's going. Before she does, though, she'll cross her fork and knife on her plate if she's not done — that signals to the waitstaff she's still going.
There are also ways to communicate that they ARE done.
In order to do so, they have to point the handles of their forks and knives at the bottom right of the plate instead of crossing them. That's "yeah, I'm done here" in Royal.
They use napkins in a very specific way.
At a dining table, the royal fam is to fold their napkins in half and then, when needed, use the part inside the fold to wipe their faces clean of food. That's to prevent all their fancy clothes from getting stained. The fold also prevents anyone from seeing what a mess they made!
The Queen approves the entire menu first.
In fact, she'd get a "menu book" sent up to her so she could yay or nay whichever dishes the chef had planned for the week. Of course, the chef knew about her very specific likes and dislikes, so those would never make the menu.
There's never pasta for dinner.
The Queen likes to keep it healthy in the evenings. Same goes for rice, potatoes, etc. She's not a fan.
Nor is there ever shellfish.
Clearly, they don't always abide by this rule, but shellfish can mean food poisoning, which is just not something royals get. So it's never on the menu at home, but ... there are ways around this rule.
They can't accept food in anything other than a royal capacity.
All these photos? They're from royally arranged and sanctioned events, making all of this public eating kosher. But if anyone tries to hand Meghan, say, a congratulatory cake while she's walking into one of the events, she's not gonna eat that.
But if you offer them food in one of those settings, they can't refuse.
Hence all the single-bites-of-cake pics and champagne holding you see throughout this slideshow.
There is an entire royal team dedicated to seating.
They're called The Office of the Marshal of the Court and they place everyone in their official spots for royal dinners and other major events — no one ends up out of place.
Dinner party conversations are formulaic.
Though there's a reason for everyone to be sitting where they land (see above), the Queen's dinner neighbors are the ones in the line of fire. Still, it's commonly known she speaks to the person on her right until the second course of the meal comes; then the person on her left is up at bat.
When the Queen is done, everyone is done.
It's as simple as that: when Lilibet finishes eating, everyone else does too.
But you're not to leave before then.
It's very rude in Royal World to leave the dinner table before the Queen has decided the meal is over. End of story. DONE.
The Queen is cool about this rule though.
She's been known to "reserve a little morsel on her plate to push around in order to let others finish their meals." It's important to her that everyone gets to eat ... at least a little bit.
What needs to happen in the Palace, stays in the Palace.
If the royals had to abide by these rules at all times, 99.9 percent of their obligations outside the home would be impossible. Rules get bent in public so as not to be rude.
There is a correct way to hold a teacup.
And this is not at all it!!! Royal protocol has the family hold their teacups with their forefinger and thumb against the top of the handle and, if need be, use their middle finger to support the base of the handle. None of this all-hand nonsense, @Kate!!! (Love you.)
They're not to leave lipstick stains.
Well, they can. But if they must, they have to be sure to sip from the same spot the whole time they enjoy their drinks so as to be sure there aren't lipstick marks enveloping the cup's entire rim.
Seasonal foods are a must.
That aforementioned menu book gets sent back with a lot of edits most of the time, but former royal chef Darren McGrady recently told RecipesPlus "You can send strawberries every day to the Queen during summer at Balmoral [Castle] and she'll never say a word."
Seriously. The farm-to-table thing is really important.
McGrady continued: "Try including strawberries on the menu in January and she'll scrub out the line and say 'don't dare send me genetically modified strawberries.' She absolutely does eat seasonal.
The Queen's meals are regimented.
She's all about that small portion, four-times-a-day lyfe. She never breaks ... unless it's chocolate. Queens! They're just like us. :) :) :)
Regular old table manners are important too.
You know, like, don't eat with your hands and keep your mouth closed while chewing. That's all equally important for royals.
There is also a correct way to hold your utensils.
Knives go in the right hand, forks in the left, with the fork facing toward the plate. It doesn't end there — royals are meant to use their knives to scoop food onto the backs of their forks and then balance that food all the way to their mouths. Yup.
The Order of Precedence applies to all events, dinner included.
Royals enter a room in the order to which they'll ascend to the throne. That's why Meghan and Harry always enter a room last.
If a royal wants to swap meals with you, it's polite to do it.
Philip is reportedly the biggest offender of wandering into the royal kitchen and liking the look of the staff's meals more than his own. So, you know. They just swapped.
The Queen can signal she's D-O-N-E with dinner in other ways.
If she puts her purse on the table, it is really time to go.
All other regular, royal rules still apply at meals.
No cleavage is an important one. Everyone is meant to be dressed modestly at all times.
When in doubt, do what the Queen does.
Highly doubt she's out here crouching with this kid and his cupcakes, but the rule goes that if you're eating with or around Her Majesty and you forget which fork to use or which way to sit, you should take a subtle peek at her and go from there.
Despite everything else, indulging a sweet tooth is cool.
You'd think it wouldn't be, right? But yeah, no one cares.
No garlic. Ever.
Yeah, yeah, I know, we talked about this. But there will NEVER ?? BE ?? GARLIC ?? IN ?? THE ?? CASTLE ?? ON ?? THE ?? QUEEN'S ?? WATCH.
The Queen can bring the kitchen to a screeching halt.
No matter if the meal is in 10 hours or 10 minutes, when Her Majesty enters the kitchen all staff must stop what they are doing until she leaves. That has to account for some burnt dishes throughout the years.
Mangoes are always kept in the palace.
The Queen is apparently a huge fan of mangoes, so much so that she has requested to know how many mangoes are in the Palace at all times.
There's no eating at unsanctioned events.
You won't catch Charles digging into that 'za just because he's feeling hungry. And you can chalk this one up to security reasons. It's against the Palace rules for royals to eat at events when food wasn't sanctioned, to avoid being poisoned.
They eat fresh and organic.
The fact that Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip are still active well into their 90s should be a case for healthy eating. Not only are they fans of good-for-you foods like fish and vegetables, but the whole family is a stickler for eating organic and local.
....Although Princess Diana was known to sneak McDonald's.
The Princess was said to favor dishes with the freshest and fewest ingredients. But she also was known to treat her sons to McDonald's every now and then. Best. Mom. Ever.
No one messes with the Queen's breakfast.
The Queen follows a strict breakfast menu of English Breakfast Tea and Corn Flakes. Always.
There's loads of etiquette regarding tea.
The royals take their afternoon cup poured first with tea, followed by milk. When stirring, it’s appropriate to never touch the sides of the cup with your spoon and, of course, slurping is not allowed.
They typically eat what they hunt.
The royal family members are notoriously keen hunters, especially while at Balmoral Castle in Scotland. So it should come as no surprise that game meat is one of their favorite dishes to have when enjoying a private meal.
They're prohibited from drinking tap water while traveling.
While on official royal tour duties there's no time to recuperate from an illness, so royals strictly stick to bottled water while on the road.
No raw meet on vacation.
The Queen always prefers her steak cooked well done, but much like the tap water the rest of the royals can't eat rare meats while traveling for fear of food poisoning.
They can't add a little spice.
Even while traveling, they royals can't indulge in a curry or other spicy foods in public as it might tarnish their image and cause gastrointestinal distress.
They won't have foie gras on the menu.
The process of making this paté can be very cruel to animals so in 2008 Prince Charles banned it from the royal menu.
Traditional cake knives are not preferred...
OK, this one isn't a hard and fast rule, but clearly the Queen prefers to cut cake with a ceremonial sword instead of a simple knife.
Well, we all have Our Things.