Princess Diana’s £1.40 divisive pre-workout breakfast: ‘Sounds crazy’

It’s a rarity to gain an insight into what the royal like to eat, especially as they tend not to chow down during public engagements. However, Princess Diana’s royal chef Darren McGrady once unveiled the royal’s very unexpected daily breakfast food.

During a cooking tutorial for his YouTube channel, Darren told fans how to make the perfect English breakfast – including the People’s Princess’ favourite part, Heinz baked beans!

“I used to cook beans for breakfast at Buckingham Palace and Princess Diana loved them. She’d actually eat a whole tin of beans for breakfast. 

“Sounds crazy, but when you think about it, there’s only seven grams of sugar in the English-style baked beans, they’re rich in protein, high in fibre, very low in fat. So they’re perfect for her to eat that really big carb boost ready for going to the gym and doing a workout,” said Darren. He first worked as personal chef to the late Queen and later at Kensington Palace for Diana and her two children, Prince William and Prince Harry.

Many of the royal chef’s fans loved the breakfast, with one writing: “Speaking as an American, HP sauce and Heinz beans are dope! I try to have them at breakfast when I can get them.” A second added: “Wow, wow, wow. Darren, this breakfast is off the scale.”

© Tim Graham Photo Library via Get

However, not everyone agreed with Diana’s choice of food! “Darren, I’m not judging, but I have always been curious what’s with the beans in an English breakfast,” commented one follower, and another Instagram fan added: “This is where the idea of a full English loses me. Beans for breakfast? I don’t even like them for the other two meals.”

Princess Diana’s favourite food

As far as lunch was concerned, McGrady once recalled that one of Diana’s favourite lunchtime meals was bell peppers stuffed with courgette, mushroom, rice, mozzarella and Parmesan cheese with a scoop of smoked tomato pepper sauce. 

© Getty

For her dinner, Darren added that, “The Princess never ate much red meat. She never ate beef, never ate pork, occasionally she’d have lamb when she was entertaining guests but for the most part it was chicken, fish or vegetarian options.”