The Royal Household have uploaded a new vacancy to their site this week, advertising for a Kitchen Porter role at Buckingham Palace: the successful candidate would be working for the Queen. Photo / Getty Images
The Royal Household have uploaded a new vacancy to their site this week, advertising for a Kitchen Porter role at Buckingham Palace: the successful candidate would be working for the Queen. Photo / Getty Images
The Queen's favourite snack is famously chocolate biscuit cake, and it appears she may be in need of another pair of hands to help prepare it.
Buckingham Palace has launched a search for a new kitchen porter — and on-site accommodation is a perk of the job, the Daily Mail reports.
The vacancy, posted on the Royal Household website this week, outlines the need for a new member of the catering team who will help to provide "outstanding" service.
The role, which pays £19,935.80 (NZ$38,610) per annum, comes with 33 days holiday per year — including bank holidays — and meals provided.
On-the-job training is also offered for candidates who haven't previously worked in catering.
The vacancy, advertised on the Royal Household's website, describes the palace staff members' 'extraordinary service' as what sets them apart. Image / The Royal Household's website
The vacancy, advertised on the Royal Household's website, says the palace staff's "extraordinary service" is what sets them apart.
It reads: "You'll join a committed Kitchen team who work together to prepare and serve food to the very highest standards."
Explaining that experience isn't necessary, the advert describes the need for a "natural team player with initiative", who is interested in working as part of a professional hospitality operation.
According to the Queen's former chef Darren McGrady — who went on to serve Diana, Princess of Wales, and now runs his own catering company in Dallas, Texas, the palace is a wonderful place to work.
Speaking to Mailonline in 2016 about working at Buckingham Palace, Darren McGrady said: "Cooking at Buckingham Palace was amazing.
"It was everything I expected it to be. They have the most amazing produce, the best quality food, the best ingredients to work with.
"Just little things like picking up the phone and calling Harrods and asking for a rack of lamb with a two-inch eye of meat and six bones — you got everything you wanted."
Opening up about the Queen's eating habits, he admitted she was "not a foodie at all", and prefers "throwing dinners to actually eating them".
"She eats to live," Darren revealed, "it's Prince Philip that lives to eat. He loves food, he's interested in food, he wants to know where it comes from. The Queen, not so much."
The Buckingham Palace-based role, which pays NZ$38,610 per annum, offers 33 days holiday per year and even provides live-in accommodation with all meals included. Photo / Getty Images
Revealing her quirky dislikes, Darren said: "We could never serve garlic to the queen but Prince Philip loved it. If we were at Balmoral and she was out, we'd slather his steak in garlic.
"But when she was at the table, there was no garlic at all. She was very Victorian and believed when she was brought up that you don't eat garlic — because if you were holding an audience the next day, you didn't want to be breathing garlic. It was seen as anti-social."
He added that the monarch — who insists that the menu is written in French — preferred "very bland" food and would avoid anything spicy, and that her ideal meal would be venison medallions with a whisky mushroom cream sauce, rice and salad.
Darren also outed Her Majesty as a "chocoholic" with a penchant for a dessert called a "chocolate perfection pie" — a pastry case lined with meringue, cinnamon and chocolate cream.
CHOCOLATE PERFECTION PIE: THE QUEEN'S FAVOURITE DESSERT
Makes one pie (eight portions)
For the pastry:
1 ¼ cups all purpose flour ¼ cup vanilla sugar 1 stick unsalted butter (cut into small pieces) 1 egg yolk 2 Tbs heavy cream
For the filling:
2 eggs ½ tsp cinnamon ½ cup sugar ½ tsp white wine vinegar ¼ tsp salt 6 ounces (170g) Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate (1 ½ bars) ½ cup water 2 egg yolks 1 cup heavy cream ½ tsp cinnamon 2 ounces (57g) Ghirardelli white chocolate — Grated (1/2 bar)
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and then prepare the pastry case/shell. In a large bowl add the flour and sugar and rub in the butter to resemble fine crumbs. Add the egg yolk and cream and form the paste into a ball.
2. Roll out the paste and line a 9 inch flan ring, then part bake the flan.
3. Prepare the filling — Place a mixing bowl over a pan of boiling water (like preparing hollandaise) and add 2 eggs, ½ tsp cinnamon, ½ cup sugar, ½ tsp vinegar and the salt. Whisk until the mixture starts to foam and then remove the bowl from the top of the pan to a cool surface. Continue whisking until the mixture reaches the ribbon stage. Pour onto the base of the flan and return to the oven until the filling has risen and is firm to the touch — about 15 minutes. Remove from the oven to a cooling rack and allow the filling to sink back into the shell. This is the first layer of the flan.
4. Melt the 6 ounces of chocolate and add the water and egg yolks. Whisk until combined. Spoon half of the chocolate mix over the top of the sunken filling and return the flan to the oven for a further 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow the flan to cool completely. This is the second layer of the flan.
5. Beat the cream and cinnamon until stiff and carefully spread half of the mix into the flan. This is the third layer.
6. Fold the remaining cream and cinnamon mix into the remaining chocolate mix and spread into the flan. This is the fourth layer. Sprinkle on the grated white chocolate and refrigerate until set.
