It turns out some things about Queen Elizabeth II are still a mystery, even to her own family! On Tuesday, January 15, Duchess Kate visited the King Henry’s Walk Garden in the London borough of Islington, and during her outing she participated in a winter planting workshop, made bird boxes and cooked pizza with several children.
During the pizza-making session, a young girl asked Duchess Kate if the queen has ever had pizza herself, and apparently the query stumped the royal. “You know, that’s such a good question. I don’t know,” Kate, 37, answered. “I don’t know. Maybe next time I see her, shall I ask?”
While the queen’s pizza-eating habits remain unknown, chances are the Buckingham Palace kitchen won’t ever be mistaken for a Domino’s. “Sadly, the queen is not a foodie,” former royal chef Darren McGrady told The Telegraph in 2015. “She eats to live, unlike Prince Philip who loves to eat and would stand and talk food all day.”
Still, should the matriarch of the British royal family ever indulge in some of the classic Italian staple, she’s most definitely not picking it up with her hands – a no-no in royal circles. Instead, should the queen have a craving for a slice of pizza, she’d likely eat it with a knife and fork.
As McGrady explained to Today Food in 2018, even fruit is eaten with silverware at Buckingham Palace and any other royal residences. “They [anyone present at the royal banquet] have a dessert knife and fork, a small plate and a finger bowl of water … which some guests have been known to drink.”
The queen’s preferences aside, Kate made it clear that she’s a pizza fan. “I think they’re some of the best things to make, pizzas at home,” the duchess said during the pizza-making lesson. “It’s such fun, you can choose what you can put on them – all the different toppings.”
Speaking of toppings, the mother of three revealed she’s partial to putting bacon on her pizza. “I quite like that,” she explained to the young chefs. “Or some other meat. It’s like having pepperoni but it’s not as spicy.”