Party Food Royal Recipes

Hello, I'm Michael Buerk.

Welcome to a brand-new series of Royal Recipes.

This time, we're at Westonbirt House,

formerly a grand country house,

now a boarding school

which has played host to royal visitors for over 100 years.

In this series, we're delving even further back in time to reveal over

600 years of royal food heritage.

You play Anne Boleyn and I will play Henry VIII.

And we've been busy unlocking the secrets

of Britain's great food archives,

discovering rare and unseen recipes that have been royal

favourites through the ages,

from the earliest royal cookbook in 1390...

It's so precious, so special, that I'm not allowed to touch it.

..to Tudor treats from the court of Henry VIII.

I can't wait for this. One, two, three.

We'll be exploring the great

culinary traditions enjoyed by the royal family,

from the grand to the ground-breaking,

as well as the surprisingly simple...

I did think that was going to be a disaster.

..as we hear from a host of royal chefs...

Prince Philip would walk past or pop his head in and say,

"What's for dinner? What are we having?"

Oh, yeah, it's not just a normal kitchen.

..and meet the people who provide for the royal table.

If it's OK for the Queen, it's OK for everyone.

Welcome to Royal Recipes.

We'll be sampling party food in the programme today.

The Royals know how to throw a good shindig,

and we're going to be attending some of history's finest royal bashes.

This time on Royal Recipes...

-Yee-ha!

-Yeah.

Paul Ainsworth gives us a flavour of a Buckingham Palace garden party.

-That's gold leaf.

-That's gold leaf.

-Good gracious...

-It just makes it decadent.

Really decadent.

We visit a famous party venue that celebrated years of royal patronage.

-Windsor romance.

-Windsor romance.

-It's quite an evocative name.

-It's very evocative.

-What does it commemorate?

It commemorates the wedding of

Prince Charles and the then Lady Diana Spencer.

And we rustle up a childhood party favourite of William and Harry's.

When the boys were very little,

they loved to come in and bake cookies and cakes.

Although the kitchen was always

in quite a mess by the time we'd finished.

I'm here in the Royal Recipes

kitchen with Michelin-starred chef Paul Ainsworth.

I know this is going to be good.

-What is it this time?

-We're going to do a smoked salmon

Morecambe Bay shrimp timbale.

What's timbale?

So, timbale basically is a Spanish word for kettle drum.

So, that's exactly what this is, like a drum-type mould.

Now, this was the dish served at the Queen's 80th birthday party...

-Absolutely, yes.

-..staged by Prince Charles.

And do you know what? I absolutely love flavours like this.

-Do you like smoked salmon?

-I love smoked salmon.

Right, if you grab a piece. We're both going to work.

All we want is a little bit up to the side there.

-It's really thinly cut, isn't it?

-Really thinly cut.

-Now, you're going to do one.

-Oh, I see.

-Yeah.

-So I put a bit...

-You're not getting off that lightly.

-I know, I know. Hang on. Here we go.

-Down in there?

-That's it.

Just make sure it's right in to the sides and the bottom.

So, then you get all the edges covered.

Actually, I think mine is a bit of a masterpiece.

I wouldn't expect anything less.

So, this was the first course, obviously,

at this wonderful birthday party.

Kew Palace it was.

They had the London Chamber Orchestra there

playing Handel's Water Music.

-Marvellous.

-We're going to move that

and just put that over to the side with you.

And now our next job - we've got some white wine vinegar.

-Yeah.

-A pinch of sugar.

-Yeah.

-Pinch of salt.

In there like so, swirling it around,

and that's going to dissolve in there.

-OK.

-Now we move onto the filling.

So, I'm just going to take this bowl and put that on your board.

-OK.

-I'm going to dice this. Now, this is royal fillet of salmon.

It's basically a nice steak.

And why the chunk?

Because we want to dice and what we're going to do is add texture.

We're going to add a nice dice like the size of my fingernail,

like those shrimps.

You've got cream cheese and sour cream.

If you add that in there I'm going to start dicing.

OK, shall I just throw it in?

-Throw it in.

-As these are Morecambe Bay shrimps.

Morecambe Bay shrimps. There you go.

Here we go, thanks. Are they particularly special?

They are very, very nice.

They're just a beautiful salty shrimp.

They're really meaty, Michael. They're almost...

When you eat them, they almost squeak in your mouth.

What's the difference between a shrimp and a prawn?

I've never worked it out.

I think a lot of people will put it down to size.

Do I just mix this up in some way?

That's it. Just mix that in there. You've got both in.

Now do some lemon zest in there for me, please, Michael.

-OK.

-If you can remember how to do that.

Now, now. Now, now.

Less of the sarcasm.

If I can just get in your way there.

How much lemon zest, about that?

-That's it. Absolutely perfect.

-Fingers untouched. Look at that.

-Still in one piece.

-You haven't forgotten a thing, have you?

Now, I'm going to chop some chives.

So you can see these flavours really working nice.

You've got acidity coming in from

the creme fraiche in the sour cream,

you've got that lovely meatiness coming from the shrimp,

smokiness from the salmon,

lovely lemon zest, and by doing it on a fine zester like that,

you're creating oils from the lemon.

Look at that. Lovely texture.

Just a really light onion flavour, almost like sweet onions.

-OK, right.

-Lovely.

Now, we're going to take our moulds,

bring them up here like so.

And we're just going to spoon in that lovely mixture.

-Ready?

-Yeah, absolutely.

OK, like so.

Also what you get from the creme fraiche in the sour cream is a

lovely seasoning and remember as well,

you've got saltiness coming from the salmon and the shrimps.

What a day it must have been at her 80th birthday party.

She had 20,000 birthday cards.

20,000?

Yeah. You got to have a big mantelpiece for that lot, don't you?

Now you can help me again.

-Yup.

-Now, all we're going to do is just fold over like this.

OK. And then push down. Yeah, just be careful of the clingfilm.

OK, now same again.

-Right over.

-You make it into a parcel?

That's it. Now, the important thing, though, is push it down,

because what you want to do is create a little bit of pressure.

Otherwise it'll be a bit floppy in the middle.

-Got it.

-Look how good these are looking.

A real dinner party kind of spectacle.

Now, what I would like you to do is put those in the fridge.

-OK.

-And you know what? Hour minimum.

But it doesn't matter if you didn't use them until the next day.

Just as long as they set nice.

-And that sets?

-Absolutely.

-OK.

-While you are going to the fridge,

I'm going to get on with chopping some cucumber for our pickle.

-I'll be back in seconds.

-OK.

I feel like a royal footman.

Where do you want it, on here?

What I like about you is you always come back with nice presents.

-What are you doing?

-I absolutely love cucumber.

What we're going to do, Michael, is

pickle it and put some chopped dill through it. OK? So just like so.

Now, why do you pickle it? A bit of the sharpness?

Yeah, it just gives sharpness,

because you've got the fattiness coming from the salmon.

-There's quite a lot of richness in that dish.

-Yeah.

Right, so if you just grab me that bowl over there, please.

It's interesting how often salmon figures on the menus for the Queen.

I think it must be one of her favourite dishes.

Now, that. See how that's dissolved?

-Oh, yeah, yeah.

-We pour that in there like so.

-Yep.

-OK. You can put a little bit more cucumber in there.

And straight away, that pickle is

just going to absorb straight into that cucumber.

The pickling takes a long time, doesn't it?

Not with something like cucumber, because it's such a soft vegetable,

it's penetrating in there straight away.

But you can eat that after a few hours, you can eat that, you know,

in a few days.

Dill. Just rub your finger and smell that.

-Oh, I say...

-Absolutely, and again...

-It's almost overpowering.

-And these are all classic flavours and

you can see why the Royals love their classic dishes,

food that's not faffed around with.

-It's simple.

-And you know what, Michael? For me,

it's proper, proper food.

I'm just going to add a pinch of rock salt.

-Yeah.

-And now we're going to plate up.

-OK.

Oh, that looks absolutely perfect, doesn't it?

Perfect shape.

I'd say that looks proper regal.

Proper regal I'd say. Proper regal. There we go.

-Right, ready?

-Put that on now.

And now just simple.

I think that must've been one of the ones I did, actually.

-I think it is the one you did.

-You know, it's the perfection.

-It shows.

-Absolutely,

take more of those gorgeous shrimps

and put some of those on the top and around the plate.

Little bit of cress,

because it's royal and you have to have cress, don't you?

-Yeah.

-And I'm going to just take

a little bit of that olive oil, giving us a nice pepperiness.

And that there, just simply, salmon Morecambe Bay shrimp timbale,

pickled cucumber, and some cress.

Birthday party for a queen.

Mate, put it there.

-Now, how are you going to cut it?

-I'm going to cut it like a cake.

-Is it going to be that solid to be able to do it?

-That solid.

And do you remember we were talking about packing it in?

So, I'm just going to cut you a nice little wedge.

When you said packing it in, I thought you were going to retire.

On all the money that you make in that restaurant of yours!

-There we go.

-There you go, and let me just grab you a spoon.

-Yes.

-Make sure you get it with a bit of that pickled cucumber.

I shall absolutely try.

You've got acidity, richness, lovely texture.

Hang on.

That is the business, isn't it?

Now, that is really perfect.

I absolutely genuinely love that.

Fantastic. If you're happy, I'm happy.

Simple and delicate, yet bursting with richness and flavour.

A fittingly elegant dish for a royal birthday dinner.

Catering for a regal do like a queen's birthday

takes a great deal of thought and planning.

And there's one royal supplier who's

turned entertaining into a fine art.

Fortnum & Mason.

Known as the Queen's grocers,

its name conjures regal connections that have kept the central London

store in the luxury food business for over 300 years.

And it's an emporium that offers

a special insight into what you might be served

if you were invited to a grand Buckingham Palace party.

In the food hall they make blinis.

A perennial favourite with the royals,

these small, delicate pancakes form the base of many luxurious canapes.

Andrew Cavanna is head of fresh food and hospitality.

We produce between 1,000 a day and 1,200 a day.

The most ubiquitous topping

for a blini is smoked salmon and creme fraiche.

Salmon blinis were among 5,000

canapes served at the reception hosted by the Queen

and Duke of Edinburgh at Buckingham Palace to launch the

UK-India Year Of Culture in 2017.

It's a very light scraping of creme fraiche,

small slice of hand-carved smoked salmon,

and then just a small spoon of caviar,

just as a finishing touch.

So, with just a few simple ingredients,

it's incredible what can be turned into something so elegant to serve

at a party that will wow everybody.

The store was founded on royal connections back in 1707

when Hugh Mason and William Fortnum

opened a small shop in Duke Street, Mayfair.

Dr Andrea Tanner, the company archivist,

tells us more about their humble beginnings.

William was a footman at the Court of Queen Anne in St James's

and Hugh was his landlord.

One of the perks of William's job was that he got to empty the

candlesticks of the half burnt candles every night in the palace,

and he would take them home and melt them down and put new wicks in them,

and bring them back and sell them to the ladies of the court.

This enterprise was so successful

that he and Hugh decided they were going to open up a shop,

initially selling candles,

but very soon selling very exotic

things like tea from far flung China.

The shop was very successful.

By 1756, they had an entrance in Piccadilly.

But the Fortnum family didn't give up their day jobs.

They continued to work at the palace.

They continued to be royal servants.

The royal connection was extremely important at the beginning,

partly because it was a very good source of customers.

The shop has famously supplied food

to kings and queens over the centuries,

but it also produces memorabilia to mark significant royal events.

One of our specialities was

to provide people with wonderful ready-made things

to celebrate royal occasions.

This is our coronation commentary for 1937.

This is for George VI.

And we could supply you with everything you wanted.

The things to drink, the things to eat,

even down to liveried servants and your cutlery and glasses.

This was to enable people to join in the celebrations and perhaps to eat

a little bit of what the royal family themselves were enjoying.

Today, the shop has two royal warrants,

one from Her Majesty the Queen and one from His Royal Highness

the Prince of Wales, and we've been

very fortunate in that we've had royal warrants from their forebears,

Queen Victoria, all of her children, her grandchildren,

and her great-grandchildren, including Queen Maud of Norway.

The store's successful relationship with the royal family is not just

down to a regal love of its food,

but also to its tact and diplomacy.

People frequently ask, "Well, what does the Queen buy?"

And we can't say.

Discretion is part of our make up.

So, although I can't say what the current members of the royal family

buy from the store, there's quite

a nice story about the Duke of Windsor,

the ex-king Edward VIII.

Of course, he abdicated before his coronation and went over to France

to get ready to marry Mrs Wallis Simpson.

And while he was waiting at the Chateau de Cande,

the shop would fly in his provisions every single day.

And one of the things he was most keen to have were kippers,

because that's what he'd like to have for breakfast.

Unsurprisingly, in 2012, the store

pulled out all the stops to celebrate

the Queen's Jubilee in style.

We produced 60 products.

One of the most popular was a tin

of biscuits that played God Save The Queen.

TIN PLAYS GOD SAVE THE QUEEN

Sticking with age-old traditions is hugely important to our royals.

But that doesn't mean tucking into

the same tried and tested dishes every time they throw a party.

These days, the royals, the young ones especially,

seem to have a very varied taste in food.

It's not just about the finer things in life.

Talking of which, Paul, what are you cooking today?

We are going to make...

Thank you. Memphis ribs.

-As in Memphis, Tennessee?

-Memphis, Tennessee, America, yes.

-And pork ribs?

-Pork ribs, absolutely.

Brilliant for barbecuing, brilliant for slow-cooking.

And supposed to be a favourite of the young princes, particularly,

-Prince William and Harry.

-Yep.

-According to the papers anyway.

But we do know is they went to

a friend's wedding in Memphis, Tennessee,

and they went out to a rather famous, or famous for Memphis,

restaurant called The Rendezvous

and they had pork spare ribs, and according to the papers,

absolutely loved them. So, what did they like?

In Memphis, you've got that kind of sweet, salt, and that spice,

so they go really well together.

In American pit cooking, you have a dry rub.

And what we've got here is salt,

demerara sugar, paprika, and some pepper.

That's going to be a tangy rub, isn't it?

Well, yeah, but remember quite a lot

of surface area to cover and we've got two sets of ribs there.

And what sort of effect are you going for?

What we are aiming for is really deep kind of caramelization.

You cut into it, and because of the slow smoky cooking,

the fat is just beautifully dispersed through the meat.

It's juicy. It is a delicious way of cooking.

-Only if you get it right?

-Only if you get it right, absolutely.

-What are the pitfalls?

-Not getting your heat right.

Having your temperature too hot.

But also, as well, smoke is lovely,

but it can be very overpowering and very acrid.

You're really putting a lot on there, aren't you?

Yeah, remember we've got to save some for the bottom, right?

And the reason we really pat it in

is because we really want that seasoning to get straight in there.

The Americans are really big into barbecuing.

Huge. If you want to come and have a look,

I'm going to talk to about this.

That is cherry wood.

-Yeah.

-Now, there's all sorts of different woods.

Because we're going long and slow,

we want our ribs to get that smoke over time and not straight away.

So that's why we leave the wood nice and chunky.

You might think, "Oh, there's not a lot of sizzle and stuff."

Remember, we're slow-cooking. We're not caramelizing it like a steak.

This isn't my kind of barbecuing.

Normally, there would be flames, there would be...

Everything would be black on the outside and raw in the middle.

These little containers, you fill them with water.

So, we've got two over this side over the main heat source.

The water is to kind of make the heat circulate,

so indirect cooking.

It's basically creating an oven.

Because if you just had the heat underneath,

you would just be coming from the bottom.

There would be nothing cooking the top.

And then you wouldn't have that lovely, round heat.

-All right?

-This is science at work.

Well, you see, I'm not just a pretty face.

Well, that's good.

Right, next. I'm going to teach you all about the mop.

-The mop?

-The mop, all right?

What's a mop? Well, I know what a mop is.

You've seen them when they've got

the big pits and they're basting the meat.

Or like at home, when you're basting meat.

-That's what that is, OK?

-Yeah.

Now, that would be generally what people would use.

-Yes, to baste the thing.

-Basting. I'm going to use rosemary.

-All right?

-OK.

-Why not?

That tastes of nothing, it's hairy, it's bland.

-Yeah, OK.

-So we're going to make now our basting mop mix.

So, in here, I've got apple juice...

..more paprika, demerara sugar,

and then we've got some vegetable oil.

Now, the way you want to do this is every half an hour

you want to be lifting that lid, basting, turning them over.

That's the important thing with barbecuing as well.

With any form of meat, for me, keep turning.

So, we've got our paprika, our sugar, our apple juice and veg oil.

But it would not be a mop without a bit of Tennessee sipping whisky.

-A good glug of bourbon.

-Yup.

-All right?

Like a lot of American things, it's slightly sweeter, isn't it?

-Slightly sweeter, yeah.

-It's a sweeter kind of whisky.

It's a sweeter kind of barbecue all over, really.

Now we go straight in like that. Look at that. Lovely.

-Using your...

-Would you hold the lid for me, Michael? Is that OK?

-I would, yeah.

-OK.

-Using your improvised brush.

My improvised brush. Now watch as we go on like that.

Now, can you hear the juices just running off?

-Yeah.

-But as time goes on that will start to caramelize on the meat,

so it just becomes delicious, so it's long and slow.

So, do that every half an hour.

-OK.

-Now we go lid back on.

-Yeah.

-Now, really simple.

And this is such a great meal to make at home in the summer as well.

And not expensive at all.

So, you've got those beautiful, slow-cooking ribs,

and we're simply going to serve it with slaw.

Before we do, slow-cooking - how long?

For me, that would be about four hours.

-OK.

-And again a nice rest.

-Now, what are you doing here?

So, here - white cabbage, red cabbage.

Just really simple.

Some creme fraiche, good seasoning,

vinegar, lovely crunchy vegetable - done.

No messing around. Absolutely delicious.

All the complexity's in the meat.

Absolutely. A good seasoning.

Then we're just going to, with your hands,

get right in there and mix around.

And what the vinegar is doing is starting to slowly cure the cabbage.

It starts cooking, and the salt.

-This is the perfect accompaniment, is it?

-It is, it is.

Something like this lovely crunchy vegetable,

that lovely acid from the vinegar, beautiful.

Creme fraiche, I love the stuff.

It's lovely, creme fraiche, isn't it?

-Oh, I love it, love it.

-Without too much richness.

No, so tell you what - if you could just slowly mix that in for me...

-OK.

-..until it basically looks like coleslaw.

I'm going to go get our ribs.

All right. The fashion for spare ribs

has been around quite a long time, hasn't it?

Because I think the reason the papers reckoned the young

princes like this sort of thing so much is that Princess Diana,

when she was alive, used to take the young princes out in London

to eat out with spare ribs and things.

-Yeah.

-Yeah, long time ago now, isn't it?

-I mean, look at those.

-Oh, wow...

It really is delicious comfort food,

and there's something so brilliant about cooking like this.

I think there's a real sense of satisfaction...

-Yeah.

-..when you know when you're doing slow-cooking.

-Yeah.

-Like that, OK?

-Oh, there's a second one.

-Look at those. Look at them.

-Absolutely delicious.

-I see what you mean about it caramelizing.

-Have a smell. Just have a smell.

-OK.

-You smell the wood?

-Oh, yeah!

-And the smoke is beautiful.

So, all of that flavour, but long and slow.

Just at the end there, after about four hours, just take them off.

Wrap them in tinfoil,

and you can even put them right over

the other side where there's not much heat

and just let them sit there.

Even this needs resting.

And here we go. Plating-up time.

Absolutely. You've got cherry wood in there.

I had an American friend who used to swear by hickory chips.

-Absolutely and your...

-Does it make a difference?

It does, and we've used large pieces

of wood because we're doing long and slow.

If I were doing something like a chicken,

I'd use something like a maple wood.

You can almost look at what kind of meat you're cooking,

and then kind of pick up the flavour characteristics that might be coming

from that wood that you might think,

"Well, that would go lovely with pork."

Or, "That would go lovely with chicken."

So, now we're just going to take some of that gorgeous coleslaw.

Like that. And this is real food with your hands, Michael.

-I was going to say...

-Real kind of proper, proper, proper...

-Look at that.

-You've got to eat spare ribs with your hands,

-haven't you?

-Yeah, absolutely.

-Want to dig in?

-Yeah.

-All right, let me get you one ready.

-Yeah.

Just watch how these will peel away like that.

-There you go.

-It's hot, it's hot.

-Come on, it's not.

-It is!

There we go.

Have a bit of the coleslaw with it as well.

-OK.

-Go for it, yeah. It's real finger food.

-Hang on a second. You've got some on your nose.

-All right.

-That's good, isn't it?

-Yee-ha!

-Yeah! Y'all.

-Kind of makes you proud, don't it?

God bless America.

God bless America.

Tasty, informal party grub.

Just as popular with our young royals as it is with everyone else.

The coronation of Elizabeth II marked a return to the good times

following a period of austerity

during and after the Second World War.

It was an excuse for parties across the land.

One of them was held at a

particularly glamorous West End venue.

A London landmark,

the Savoy is renowned for throwing

some of the glitziest shindigs in town,

particularly royal ones.

Dr Matt Green met the hotel's archivist, Susan Scott,

to get a glimpse behind the scenes of one of its biggest bashes,

a party to celebrate the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

Wow! Well, it's a spectacular room.

In 1953, there were Coronation balls pretty much all over the country.

But what was so significant about the one that was held here?

There had been a very good

relationship between the royal family

and the Savoy for many decades

and lots of quite significant events had actually happened here,

so it would have been odd if they hadn't wanted to do something quite

significant, and I think for

the first time in the hotel's history that I can think of,

every public room is pressed into service for this ball,

every single room, all at the same time.

So, it's on a monumental scale.

For our point of view, absolutely, yes, it was.

A party on this scale would have needed meticulous planning to be

the epitome of glamour and sophistication,

and it called for a menu to match.

So, what have we here?

This is actually the menu, and as you can see,

it was in the form of a scroll.

Le consomme riche Albion. La salade princesse.

It's not necessarily anything particularly exotic.

-No.

-But just with nice French names.

It makes it sound very glamorous.

Indeed, yeah. Who would be responsible for cooking all this?

Well, our major chef was Monsieur Laplanche.

This would probably be one of the highlights of his career because it

wasn't simply creating a coronation menu.

It was creating a menu that could be fed to over a thousand people.

-At least.

-So over a thousand people sitting down?

-Absolutely.

Each guest paid 12 guineas per ticket.

It doesn't sound much, but when you consider the average weekly wage was

just over £5, only people with very deep pockets could afford it.

It's the equivalent of £260 today.

You can spot a few famous faces in these pictures.

Down here is the actor John Mills,

and he's actually sitting next to Richard Attenborough's wife.

And this is... Who's this?

This is... I think it's the nawab of Bahawalpur,

and he's wearing a very fine outfit, which is what he'd actually worn to

the coronation itself earlier in the day.

And there were people here

as part of the Japanese delegation, who came straight

from the coronation to celebrate afterwards.

The Savoy has always attracted the world's rich and famous,

including five generations of the British royal family.

Before her coronation,

the young Princess Elizabeth and her sister Margaret

were regulars during cocktail hour at the hotel's famous watering hole.

-Shall we?

-Let's go.

-OK.

The American bar here was put on the map in 1920,

when Harry Craddock, a new head barman,

made exciting concoctions that drew large crowds of bright young things.

Harry Craddock's successor in 1954 was his protege, Joe Gilmore,

a favourite with the Royals.

Did he create anything exciting or notable for royal occasions?

Actually, he did several royal cocktails.

There's all sorts of events to be memorialised in cocktail form,

and so that is a tradition that has

continued with bartenders ever since,

And this is one of them. It's called Windsor Romance.

-Windsor Romance?

-Windsor Romance.

-That's quite an evocative name.

-It's very evocative.

-What does it commemorate?

It commemorates the wedding of

Prince Charles and the then Lady Diana Spencer,

and that's going to be demonstrated here by our barman Dominic.

-Great.

-This is a bit of a favourite of mine, actually,

and it uses some lemon juice and a touch of almond syrup as well.

A nice, plentiful amount of gin.

-Oh, it smells lovely.

-It does.

-Enjoy.

-Magnificent!

OK, so...

Thinking of Charles and Diana...

That is actually very much my kind of drink.

The royal family's long association with the hotel continues,

whether for private parties or a quiet lunch,

and the younger generation are just as likely to drop in for a cocktail as their forebears.

-Cheers!

-Cheers!

-Cocktail time, Paul.

-Yes.

-Good times.

-Actually, nobody knows where the word cocktail comes from,

-you know.

-Really?

-Yeah, some say it's like, you know,

because it's very colourful, aren't they, cocktails.

Like a rooster's tail.

-Yes.

-But others say it comes from the Spanish,

"Colo de gallo",

which apparently is a kind of root that looks like a rooster's tail,

that they used to stir drinks with.

-What's your favourite?

-Just recently,

someone made me a Tom Collins and I absolutely loved it,

because I quite like them simple.

I quite like a margarita, tequila with the salt round the top.

-Yeah.

-As far as the Royals are concerned,

Prince Charles apparently likes a half-and-half Martini.

Half gin, half dry vermouth.

-Yes.

-Which sounds as if it would knock your head off to me.

Camilla and Prince Edward like a gin and tonic.

Prince William likes lager.

-Yes.

-When William you Kate got married,

they had a cocktail that was passion fruit, raspberry liqueur,

-vodka and champagne. How's that?

-That sounds nice.

In fact I might try that one when we finish.

Yeah, yeah I'm going to have one of these.

Down through the years, generations of royals have thrown extravagant

parties. But not every celebration has been a lavish formal affair.

Carolyn Robb was chef to the Prince and Princess of Wales for 13 years,

from 1989.

But before that, she worked for the Queen's cousin.

And one day, some important visitors came for tea.

Today I'm making some little chocolate Mars cupcakes.

They hold that very special place in my heart as they're the first thing

that I ever made for Prince William and Prince Harry.

First time I made these was before I was actually cooking for the family.

At that time I was cooking for the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester and they came for afternoon tea.

Today I've got two little assistants, my daughters Lucy and Mandy.

First I'm going to sieve together some self-raising flour...

..and two tablespoons of cocoa powder.

I think it's really lovely to start cooking with children from a very young age.

It inspires them to be creative and it's just great fun.

And then I'm going to add some golden caster sugar as well,

which can also go through the sieve.

Lucy are you going to put that in?

-All of it?

-All of it. Yup.

That's it. Then we're going to rub it through the sieve.

Well done.

That's it. Right, that's done.

Now we're going to add in some butter.

It's really important to have the butter nice and soft.

And we're making it by hand, so we want it to be nice and easy to mix.

That's is.

And the last thing we're going to do is break two eggs into that.

Good, well done.

Pour that into the...

bowl.

That's it. And you want to wipe your hands.

And the last thing we're going to add is a teaspoon of vanilla.

I like to use, this is a vanilla bean paste.

It has a lovely strong vanilla flavour.

This is what I always use.

And now we're going to mix.

And very often, the worst thing that you can do to a cake is over mix it.

Want to have a try? It's quite stiff.

Depending on how thick the mixture is,

sometimes at the very end I add in just a little splash of milk.

So that's what I'm going to do now.

Mandy, can you put a little bit of that?

About half of what's in there.

Perfect.

We used to make cupcakes for special occasions.

And they always had a very special birthday cake of their choice.

But we always had great fun making them.

Right, I think that's ready. Now we can pop it in to the tin.

Right, we're going to put a spoonful in each one.

The filled cases are popped into the oven at 180 Celsius for 12 minutes.

Carolyn worked for Charles and Diana for over a decade

and still cherishes many happy memories from that time.

One very special time of year in the royal household was Christmas time.

And I always really looked forward to receiving the royal household

Christmas card. I have a very special one here,

sent to me by the Prince and Princess of Wales

with a wonderful photo of Prince William and Harry when they were still very small.

While the cakes are cooking,

Carolyn makes the glaze by first melting the chocolate...

That's looking good though, isn't it? Smelling delicious.

..and then adding some butter.

Put the butter in to make it look nice and shiny.

When the boys were very little, they loved to come in and bake cookies and cakes and things.

The princes were always very well behaved in the kitchen.

We had lots of fun, but they were always very well behaved.

Extremely polite

but great fun to have.

Right, I think that's good now.

Now we're just going to leave that on the side for a moment,

just to thicken up very slightly.

Once the cooked cakes have cooled,

all that's left is to transform them into mice.

We're going to stick a marshmallow onto the top of each one

using some of this chocolate.

A nice marshmallow onto the centre.

And that's it. Mandy, do you want to do it?

Put on, good girl.

Just check that these are all firmly stuck onto the top of the cake.

Then the next bit I think I'll do.

This part of the process where you spread the chocolate onto the top can be quite messy.

Both boys had great fun making these and although the kitchen

was always in quite a mess by the time we'd finished,

they were very good about tidying up afterwards.

There we go.

This is the most enjoyable part of the process for children.

I'm not sure if it's the decorating or if it's eating the decorations that's more fun.

I'm hoping we're going to have enough.

As much fun as it is to make these,

the really good part of it is eating them, isn't it, girls?

Delicious!

A tea party with mouse-shaped cupcakes.

How could a young prince or princess possibly resist?

Of course, chocolate desserts for grown-up royals have tended to be

a little more sophisticated.

Well, Paul, are you cooking mouse cupcakes?

-No.

-I'm going to add another S and we're going to do a mousse!

OK, but what specifically are you going to do?

We're going to do a chocolate bavarois.

Basically, a rich set mousse made in exactly the same way,

with the eggs and the cream giving it richness

but you add gelatine to it so it's almost like a jelly kind of style mousse.

Quite a classic recipe.

And a favourite of Queen Victoria's.

The base of the bavarois starts with us making basically a custard.

So we've got cream and milk in this pan which we're going to just bring up to a simmer.

Here we've got egg yolks and sugar.

So we're just going to add these to this bowl.

Three eggs?

So we just whisk our egg yolks and sugar together until they go pale.

Now this particular dish

was served at one of Queen Victoria's garden parties.

Her cook, Gabriel Tschumi,

did it for the garden party on July 11th 1900.

And it was obviously THE attraction of the food at the garden party,

because the rest of it, was, to be honest, pretty plain,

particularly for Victorian and Edwardian times.

-Yeah.

-I mean they have dressed it up as...

Oh here we go, I knew it.

..as you chefs do, with a lot of French.

It says "Les sandwiches de Boeuf, Le sandwiches de Jambon"

-But the truth is...

-Beef and ham sandwiches.

-Beef sandwiches, ham sandwiches,

chicken sandwiches and tongue sandwiches.

So by the time you've had those, pretty plain by the sound of it,

you'd be aching for something really sophisticated if you turned up for a

royal garden party at Buckingham Palace in 1900,

I would have thought.

So a lot rests on this.

So if you'd just like to have a look at this, Michael.

-Yeah.

-All right, we've got our custard mix now.

You'll see there, I've got some beautiful 70% dark chocolate.

So what the 70% means is 70% cocoa.

All right? So now we've just cooked our custard.

-Lovely, yeah?

-Very intense flavour.

We'll just add those in gently.

Keep whisking. So you're melting it,

and this is basically kind of like making a ganache,

you know, like when you see like chocolate truffles.

-Yeah.

-So we're now going to

change our whisk.

So what we do is we just keep folding that mix.

-Goodness, that's rich.

-It's lovely, absolutely lovely.

And the trick is, don't skimp on the chocolate.

-No.

-You know, use great quality chocolate.

I bet Gabriel Tschumi didn't skimp on the chocolate,

because Queen Victoria had a very, very sweet tooth I think.

Right, stage one.

So we'll just pop that over here.

And the idea is to let that cool.

-Yeah.

-All right? Because if you don't let that cool,

you're then going to split the cream.

We've whipped that, as you can see.

-Yeah.

-Like that, OK?

So add in the cream to the mix.

And again, more of that folding.

My goodness, you put together some calories in your day, haven't you?

Yes!

-Right, look at that.

-It looks rich, doesn't it?

It does. Right, over here we've got a ring which,

in the bottom in there, is a sable biscuit.

What does that mean?

Sable is like a cross between pastry and a biscuit.

It's equal quantities of flour and butter.

-Yeah.

-And then we've sweetened it slightly with sugar.

-Yup.

-Bake them in the oven so they're very...almost

shortbread-like kind of pastry biscuit.

-But not too sweet because there's an awful lot of sweetness in that.

-No.

Now in we go.

Actually this might have been Queen Victoria's last garden party, you know,

-because she died about six months after this was served at her garden party.

-Really?

-Yeah she was 81.

-OK.

-Had a stroke.

-Now, basically you're just going to run our mix off.

Yeah, to make it really neat on the top.

Yeah, just lovely and smooth.

A bit like a little sculptor, aren't you, really?

-There's a lot you don't know about me.

-Yeah?

The road down to the kitchen.

Yes. Now, if you could just take those to the fridge for me.

Yup.

And around in the fridge, you should find two more like that, that's set.

-OK.

-Setting time for that, would be,

because you got the chocolate and the cream and the eggs,

not long, all right?

So about an hour and you'll be ready to go.

-About an hour you said, OK. I'll bring the other ones back.

-Yes, excellent.

Don't they look lovely and crisp and round?

-Gorgeous, aren't they?

-Should I pop them on there?

-Yeah, absolutely.

So these ones here, we've unmoulded.

Right, next, the chocolate glacage.

So we're going to take our liquids first, so water...

-Yep.

-..into the pan.

Yup. Glacage, another chef's expression for glaze.

Yeah? It's just glaze, or what...

Just a kind of shiny, shiny, shiny glaze.

-Cocoa powder.

-Yup.

Golden caster sugar.

Golden caster sugar being exactly like your ordinary caster sugar,

but not as processed.

So you've got that, it's got a bit of very slight molasses flavour to it.

And basically, just whisk it up to just below a boil.

But what's going to turn it into a glacage, Michael, is the gelatine.

-Now the gelatine is in cold water, of course?

-Absolutely.

-I'm learning.

And the reason it's in the cold water is because

it's like almost like a plastic.

-Yeah.

-OK, it goes into the cold water and it blooms and then it becomes a jelly.

Almost there. You see,

it's like a really nice thick sort of chocolate sauce.

-So here's our gelatine.

-Yeah.

So now with the gelatine being in there,

when I pour this over our lovely bavarois,

it's going to almost be like a shock.

It's going to set as it's running down

and give them a lovely, shiny coat.

So next, you're going to leave that to cool slightly.

-Yup.

-OK.

-Now very carefully...

Remove these very, very carefully onto our rack.

That's a professional job there.

-You don't want to muck it up at this stage, do you?

-No.

They do look nice though, don't they?

-They do, don't they?

-They look machined almost, don't they?

Yeah. So now we're going to go and nappe our glacage.

You're going to nappe your glacage!

So nappe-ing my glacage means I'm spooning

my shiny chocolate sauce.

And keep going. That's what the tray is for.

Yeah, why is that not melting...

-Because it's so cold...

-..the original little cake?

And because it's a thin layer, it's cooling it down, really,

-really quickly.

-Instantly, presumably.

-Instantly, yeah.

OK.

Now next,

just to make it really, really special.

-That's gold leaf!

-It's gold leaf.

Good gracious... That's a bit of a waste, isn't it?

This is Royal Recipes, Michael!

MICHAEL LAUGHS

Actually, Queen Victoria for her garden party,

she had the actual menu cards and invitations and things actually in gold

with the royal coat of arms on it.

I bet everybody who went there, kept it, you know.

It's a nice aesthetic contrast, isn't it?

The dark of the chocolate and the bright gold of the gold leaf.

Gold leaf has no flavour other than it just makes it decadent.

-Really decadent.

-It's all about that great quality chocolate.

-Simple.

-It's one of the very few things that you think, it's just nice on its own.

-Isn't it?

-Yeah.

-You want to concentrate on it.

There we go. Take a bit of the gold.

Do you know, in Victoria's time,

the poor people would queue outside Buckingham Palace if they knew there

was a garden party on, because all the leftovers and everything would

be gathered together and given to the poor.

Fantastic.

Queen Victoria's garden party bavarois au chocolat.

Join us next time for more Royal Recipes.