Prince Philip had one particular speciality he would make at royal barbecues which would seem unusual to many of us. But, his grandson Prince Harry was one of the biggest fans, according to the duke himself.
The late Duke of Edibugh had a passion for cooking and cooking shows and he was well known as the “master of the barbecue”.
However, the Duke of Sussex revealed that even though Philip excelled at cooking meat, he had also mastered another delicacy – spaghetti bolognese on the coals.
In his explosive memoir, Spare – released last year, Harry recounted how he spent the summer of 2001 in Balmoral, saying: “Grandpa, who’d set off half an hour before us, was already tending his grill at the back of the lodge.
“He stood amid a thick cloud of smoke, tears streaming from his eyes. He wore a flat cap, which he took off now and then to mop his brow or smack a fly.
“As the fillets of venison sizzled he turned them with a huge pair of tongs, then put on a loop of Cumberland sausages.
“Normally I’d beg him to make a pot of his speciality, spaghetti Bolognese. This night, for some reason, I didn’t.”
He added that the late Queen Elizabeth’s speciality was salad dressing, explaining: “She’d whisked a large batch. Then she lit the candles down the long table and we all sat on wooden chairs with creaky straw seats.
“Often we had a guest for these dinners, some famous or eminent personage. Many times I’d discussed the temperature of the meat or the coolness of the evening with a prime minister or bishop. But tonight it was just family.”
Other royals have previously talked about Prince Philip’s mastery when it came to royal barbecues.
In a BBC documentary filmed before his death but aired afterwards as a tribute in 2021 called Prince Philip: The Royal Family Remembers, Prince William said of his grandad: “Every barbecue that I’ve ever been on, the Duke of Edinburgh has been there cooking.
“We go on barbecues and there’s no chef, there’s not anyone else. He’s definitely a dab hand at the barbecue. I can safely say there’s never been a case of food poisoning in the family that’s attributed to the Duke of Edinburgh.”
King Charles said: “He adored barbecuing and he turned that into an interesting art form.
“And if I ever tried to do it he…I could never get the fire to light or something ghastly so [he’d say]: ‘Go away!’”
