In fact, Darren, who worked for the Royal Members for 15 years and cooked at Buckingham Palace, Sandringham and Balmoral, revealed that when it came to banquets, he had to prepare at least 150 meals for His Majesty. Speaking to Coffee Friend, chef McGrady said: “There were no tasters, no. “Some royals prepared their food separately away from the guests at large events. “However, with the Queen, we prepared 150 dishes and the Queen’s page came in and picked one at random. “In this way, if you were to violate the food, you would have to upset everything. “From our point of view, it also meant that we had to have the same standards in every dish, without knowing who the queen would eat.” When it came time to choose a dish to serve, Darren said the cooks were going through a “constitutional” process.