Royal life requires a lot of appearances and galas and fancy dinners featuring poached supreme of Sandringham Estate pheasant with truffles, crushed root vegetables, gratinated chard, and braised sweet potatoes (yes, that’s an actual dish from a Buckingham Palace state dinner.) But how do princes and princesses act—and eat—when there’s no need for crowns and gowns, or to wine, dine, and impress?
Thanks to a former royal chef, the world knows that Queen Elizabeth enjoys grilled fish, dark chocolate, gin, and a surprisingly all-American breakfast. Will and Kate, though? Still very much a mystery—but thanks to Prince William himself, the world recently got a glimpse into the world of Cambridge normcore.
When asked about his go-to dish at a charity cook-off event, Prince William admitted that although he’s not great in the kitchen, he likes to make “a roast. So a bit of roast chicken or a steak,” he said, according to People. “I like it medium-rare. I like it quite alive.”
Although pregnant Kate likely isn’t filling up on undercooked steak, there’s something quite pleasant about the idea of William making a roast chicken for his wife and two children. In fact, it seems like roast chicken, for their family, is a full-on thing: E! reported in 2016 that “Kate would go to the supermarket and make William roast chicken dinner for when he got home from work. It was eye-opening for a man who had only ever been taught royal family values.”
Lest you think this roast-chicken reporting was a one-off, Vanity Fair’s Katie Nicholl got a similar scoop in 2012: “In the evenings, [Kate] indulges her hobby of cooking William’s favorite supper, roast chicken.” (The Evening Standard, too, was oh, so close to confirming the roast news five years ago: “Kate was on the King’s Road not so long ago carrying a shopping bag with chicken in it that she was taking home to cook for William’s supper. That’s their idea of the perfect night,” a source said.) Allegedly, Kate will also occasionally cook roast chicken for brother-in-law and Kensington Palace neighbor, Prince Harry.
It’s actually a bit puzzling just how much roast chicken–loving confirmation there is. But, perhaps when life is so extraordinary, ordinary things are the best things of all. That, or the Cambridges have been dining on lobsters and caviar this entire time and just leaked the chicken thing to throw us off their luxurious, shellfish-y scent. Yes, yes, this is rabid speculation and completely made up by this writer on the spot—but, honestly, have you seen Princess Margaret’s morning routine?
