A scuffle at Buckingham Palace ended with a personal chef to Queen Elizabeth headbutting a fellow palace chef who, according to insider accounts , made a snide comment about his alcohol consumption. The bloody scuffle was not the sort of thing one prefers to see inside Buckingham Palace, and Her Majesty was not amused.
Adam Steele, the 28-year-old chef to Queen Elizabeth, not only lost his job over the outburst of violent temper, he was placed under arrest and had to spend a night in jail — and still faces charges over the scuffle.
Steele was said to be one of the top palace chefs and a personal favorite of Queen Elizabeth and her husband Prince Philip, who often requested that Steele prepare their meals himself. In fact, Prince Philip planned to take Steele with him on an upcoming trip to the royal Sandringham estate, where the 93-year-old Duke of Edinburgh will hold one of his beloved shooting expeditions for friends.
The scuffle broke out on October 17, at a week-ending party held by Buckingham Palace staff in the staff quarters — a get-together at which Steele allegedly imbibed at least a little more than his fellow staffers deemed prudent.
“No one knows what exactly was said to Adam, but it was something like, ‘You’ve had enough, it’s time to stop drinking,’” said one Buckingham Palace insider who witnessed the scuffle. “Whatever it was, the next thing the other man has blood over his face and a cut eyebrow. It’s ironic because they work together and we all thought they were friends.”
According to a report in Britain’s Daily Mail newspaper , Steele’s direct boss, Mark Flanagan, who manages the Buckingham Palace kitchen staff, fought hard for Steele to hang on to his job, but it appears that the 88-year-old Queen Elizabeth found her patience tested too far and was determined to show Steele the Palace door.
“Mark wanted to keep him because the tragedy is Adam is a very good chef, and popular with the royals. He has cooked for the Queen at Craigowan Lodge at Balmoral and he is a particular favorite of the Duke of Edinburgh,” the anonymous staffer told the Mail . “Whenever the Duke has his shooting parties at Wood Farm on the Sandringham estate, he always asks for Adam.”
While representatives for Buckingham Palace declined to comment on the reported scuffle, the former chef — who had met Queen Elizabeth face-to-face on several occasions — was out on bail and due for his next court appearance on assault charges November 25.
