45 Royal Family Food Rules You Had No Idea They Have To Abide By
Besides the no garlic thing. Everyone knows that by now.
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.
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