King Charles’ strict mealtime ban and unusual competition with Queen Camilla
Queen Camilla's son, the food critic Tom Parker Bowles, has lifted the lid on what mealtimes are like with his mother and her husband King Charles and revealed the rule that his stepfather insists be followed
Queen Camilla’s son has revealed how the King is a recycling champion who “appalls waste”.
Food critic and author Tom Parker Bowles said his stepfather Charles bans anything to be thrown away after mealtimes, insisting leftovers can be used for other dishes with all packaging recycled. Tom, 49, said: “There is no waste, everything is recycled, everything is used from the table. If anything is leftover from the dinner, that will be made into something else or appear the next day. Nothing’s allowed to be thrown out.”
The King has long been a champion of sustainability – The Coronation Food Project coordinated by his charitable fund launched last year, aiming to reduce food waste and support people living in “food insecurity”. Parker Bowles added: “It’s not the King just paying lip service, he practices what he preaches.”
As the King’s stepson and godson, he says food sustainability is a subject he “can relate to” the monarch on. “He really is a food hero. To talk to him about the strange varieties of plums or pears or anything else is endlessly fascinating”, he added.
Buckingham Palace announced in February that Charles was diagnosed with an undisclosed form of cancer, but Parker Bowles confirmed his “doctor says the treatment is going well” and shared how his mother Camilla was coping, saying: “She’s tough, my mother”.
His latest cookbook, Cooking and the Crown, details the history of food within the royal family – from the reign of Queen Victoria beginning in 1837 and Edward VII at the turn of the century, to Charles and Camilla.
