Queen Elizabeth and Prince William had a special connection, and in many ways, they were just like a regular grandma and grandson. But let’s not kid ourselves: They were still royals, which means the idea of “spoiling your grandkids” was likely next-level. At least, that was definitely the case when it came to William’s favorite dessert.
According to the queen’s ex-chef Darren McGrady, when the young prince wanted his preferred sweet treat, the queen had a magical way of indulging him. And let’s just say we are totally getting into Willy Wonka territory here.
So what did Prince William crave as a kid, and how did his doting grandmother fulfill those wishes? Read on to find out.
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How did Queen Elizabeth indulge Prince William’s love of dessert?
With the push of a button! Yes, it’s the stuff of dreams for any child: You press a button and ice cream appears—served by a gloved footman, no less! And that’s exactly what happened, according to McGrady, who worked for the queen before transitioning to a job in Princess Diana’s household.
“When I worked for the queen, Prince William loved dark chocolate and asked for chocolate ice cream,” McGrady told the U.K.’s Heart Bingo. “The queen would press a button, the page would come, she’d ask for the ice cream, and it triggered a long chain: head chef, pastry chef, silver pantry, glass pantry, linen room. Finally, 20 minutes later, William got his homemade ice cream presented to him.”
Let’s hope the long trot along the red-carpeted corridors didn’t mean the ice cream melted by the time he got it!
Did the queen join her grandson for ice cream?
We don’t know for sure, but we’re guessing she did at least some of the time. After all, the late queen loved ice cream too—so much so that she served it as part of her wedding reception in 1947. Guests tucked into Bombe Glacée Princess Elizabeth, aka strawberry ice cream in a dome. McGrady said that the queen regularly included variations of this at her banquets, such as the coffee-flavored Bombe Glacée Coppelia.
Like William, the queen adored dark chocolate, and that love wasn’t limited to ice cream. Her former lady-in-waiting, Lady Pamela Hicks, revealed on the documentary My Years with the Queen that the monarch always had a box of chocolates with her, which she hid in her room so her “greedy” family wouldn’t eat them before she did!
Her favorites were chocolates and pralines from upmarket chocolatier Charbonnel et Walker and chocolate mints from Bendicks. In fact, she enjoyed these treats so much that she awarded both brands royal warrants, meaning they were legally allowed to display the royal coat of arms on their offerings.
Was Diana stricter with William’s dessert intake?
Nope. Diana ran an even more casual kitchen environment at Kensington Palace, McGrady revealed. There was no magic ice cream button there—it was more a case of opening the freezer yourself. “At Kensington, it was much more relaxed,” he said. “William would walk into the kitchen and say, ‘Darren, can I have some chocolate ice cream, please?’ I’d say, ‘Help yourself.’”
According to the chef, William would “grab Häagen-Dazs chocolate chip—that was his favorite—open it, and sit in the windowsill eating it.” He added that Diana also liked to hang out in the kitchen, have a snack and catch up.
Does William still have a sweet tooth?
He sure does. To this day, he’s still a chocolate ice cream fan. He and Kate are often snapped enjoying ice cream, such as when the duo visited an ice cream parlor in Swansea, Wales, in 2020. “I am a chocolate man,” he told the owners of Joe’s Ice Cream Parlor.
Likewise, during William and Kate’s Caribbean tour in 2022, they visited a chocolate farm in Belize. While there, William jokingly asked if he could get a job as an apprentice, saying, “It’s my kind of thing.”
How else did Elizabeth and William bond?
When William was attending school at nearby Eton College—where he’s just enrolled Prince George—he would spend Sundays having tea with his grandmother at Windsor Castle. The prince revealed just how much those afternoons meant to him in a recent video tribute, saying, “I remember many a quiet afternoon, having tea with her and my grandfather at the castle, chatting, sharing stories and seeing how completely at ease she was here, surrounded by family and her much-loved dogs and horses. To this day, she’s given me a love of teatime that I never knew I needed.”
William also paid a special tribute to her with his and Kate’s choice of cake at their 2011 wedding. As well as a traditional fruit cake, William had a second cake—a chocolate biscuit cake, something the queen adored. McGrady told Today Food that the cake was “her favorite cake” and that if anything was left when she had it at Buckingham Palace, it then went “to Windsor Castle so she [could] finish it there. I used to travel on the train from London to Windsor Castle with the biscuit cake in a tin on my knee. It was half-eaten.”
Sources:
Marie Claire: “Princess Diana’s Former Chef Shares How Queen Elizabeth Would Indulge Prince William with One Treat by ‘Pressing a Button’”
Royal.uk: “70 Facts about the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh’s wedding”
The Standard: “Kate Middleton and Prince William tuck into ice-cream scoops during Swansea visit”
ADVERTISEMENTBBC: “William and Kate dance and taste chocolate during day two of Belize tour”
The Royal Chef: “Queen Elizabeth’s Favorite Cake: Chocolate Biscuit Cake”
The Queen Loved This Two-Ingredient Cocktail
Queen Elizabeth’s Scrambled Eggs
Photos of a Young Queen Elizabeth
The post This Is the Sweet—And Oh-So-Royal—Way Queen Elizabeth Indulged Prince William’s Love of Dessert appeared first on Reader’s Digest.
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