Chef Darren McGrady was personal chef to Queen Elizabeth II, Diana, Princess of Wales and Princes’ William and Harry for fifteen years and has cooked for Presidents’ Ford, Reagan, Bush, Clinton and Bush. He is now a chef, author, culinary consultant, event planner and public speaker living in Dallas, Texas.
theroyalchef.com
I first came across Darren McGrady in the YouTube video I placed on my vale page for Prince Philip. Because of that, when I go in YouTube page there is usually one by that chef. and I was particularly interested in his English breakfast video to see how he cooks it.
In that video I was so intrigued by his pronunciation of the word saute that I checked to see if he was correct. I was also very interested to see how he cooked English back bacon,which I have bought a couple of times recently from Woolworths online. To me the package I got seemed to be halfway between bacon and prosciutto, and I rather liked it for that. And I was also interested in his comment that Princess Diana would sometimes eat a can of baked beans for breakfast, and with a smile this had me looking up how long it takes baked beans to cause gas.
Then, tonight I entered YouTube and came across this video where Darren McGrady shows how to make Cornish Pasties. Now, I am part Cornish on Mum’s side, and her Mum came from Cornwall back in the 1800’s. So they both used to make the most wonderful Cornish Pasties better than any I’ve had since. Darren McGrady seems to make them much the same way as I used to watch Mumm or Nana make them, but they rolled the short-crust pastry thinner than he does, and they didn’t pour in salt and pepper. But he keeps to the same 3 vegetables – diced onion, potato and swede. For me, these pasties taste wonderful served cold and eaten by hand with tomato sauce on the plate to dab the pasty into, like dunking a biscuit in tea or coffee.
By the way, for some years Nana was the chef at The Majestic Hotel, 100 King William Street, Adelaide, and she really knew how to cook, and passed her skill and knowledge on to Mum and Aunty Nell.
