Princess Diana's Personal Chef Reveals New Details About Her Personal Life

July 1 marked Princess Diana's would-be 60th birthday, and among those paying tribute to the late princess was her former chef, Darren McGrady. As he shared on his YouTube channel, he "knew her for 15 years, cooking for her for 11 years when she came to stay with The Queen at Balmoral, Sandringham, and Windsor Castle and was her personal chef for the last four years of her life." In celebration of his former boss, McGrady shared some fond memories of Diana, offering fans a new glimpse into her personal life. 

Noting that she had "a huge impact" on him, he opened up about just how inspirational she was, noting, "When I started cooking for her, she was patron of 119 different charities, working out at the gym every day and just looking the best she ever did." But she was also down-to-earth. As McGrady laughingly recalled, "I remember her coming down to the kitchen at Windsor Castle not long after Harry had been born and she said, 'Hold Harry for me, I want to eat some cereals.' I said, 'Your Royal Highness, I've never held a baby before in my life,' and she laughed and she said, 'Hold Harry!'" She quickly became a regular fixture as "she loved coming into the kitchen and just sitting there and chatting. She'd often just sit up on the counter or on the chest freezer and she loved talking about Phantom of the Opera and Les Miserables," as well as British soap EastEnders, he revealed.

Among his sweet recollection of Princess Diana, chef Darren McGrady also shared her favorite foods — stuffed bell peppers, stuffed eggplant, and bread and butter pudding ("that was probably her favorite dessert" — noting that her all-time favorite meal "was a dish called eggs Suzette." But perhaps the best anecdote of all was the one that showcased her lack of skills in the kitchen. Conceding that "she wasn't a good cook," McGrady revealed, "I cooked for the princess Monday through Friday and weekends I'd actually leave food in the refrigerator for her," complete with sticky notes that had instructions on how to microwave each meal.

That didn't stop her from trying her hand at cooking, however. "One Sunday, she had a friend come over and they decided to cook pasta and some spaghetti sauce," he recalled. "And they got chatting, the pasta boiled over, and it put the pilot lights out on the gas. She came into the kitchen a bit later on, she could smell gas, she called the palace fire brigade." Then, when he came back to work on Monday, "she came running into the kitchen. She said, 'Darren, you won't believe it: I cooked on the weekend! But I nearly set the whole palace on fire.'" But she quickly found the silver lining. "She said, 'I was so nervous I called the palace fire brigade, and they all came over but the best part was I had 12 hunky firemen all to myself!"