Apparently, the queen is not a fan of slugs in her food, and it is quite likely no one else does either.
According to former royal servant Charles Oliver’s book Dinner At Buckingham Palace , Queen Elizabeth once found a dead slug in her salad and wrote a rather scathingly funny note back to the chef, per Cosmopolitan .
With every meal that Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip eat at Buckingham Palace, the couple is given a notebook and a pen with which they can comment on the food for the chef. On this particular night, footmen were handed a piece of the notebook’s paper with a dead slug’s body on it and “I found this in the salad—could you eat it?” written underneath it.
Apparently, as far as Oliver is concerned, the notebook usually remains blank, but on this occasion, we can all forgive Her Majesty for sending a rather scathing review back to the kitchen with the salad invader’s corpse.
Whether or not the Queen ate the rest of her salad is unknown, but it seems unlikely given she knew there was a slug nesting in between the greens.
Queen Elizabeth found a slug in her salad one time https://t.co/SAnLrhKXYt pic.twitter.com/LncLG87CcQ
— The Takeout (@thetakeout) November 14, 2018
Oliver explained that while Queen Elizabeth rarely uses her notebook to criticize her chef, she does use it when guests visit the palace for a meal.
“Mostly, the book remains blank, as the Queen is not fussy about food. However, when she has a guest to an informal lunch and they reveal definite likes and dislikes—such as an objection to fried potatoes or Brussels sprouts—the Queen will make a discreet note for future reference. This is duly recorded by the kitchen and remembered, should the guest come again.”
The former palace servant also shared how the queen selects her meals on a daily basis. According to Daily Mail , Oliver explained that she is given a menu with a list of suggestions in a leather-bound book and uses a pencil to highlight the meals she wants and cross out those she does not. Oliver has stated that the meals are similar to those that would be found in a “decent mid-range restaurant.”
While past generations of royals dined on lavish feasts for every meal, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip prefer a much simpler menu, with the monarch even preferring Special K and toast with marmalade for her daily breakfast as opposed to bacon and eggs.
