Queen Elizabeth II’s ‘caravan’ food she was forced to eat on royal tours

From an outsider’s perspective, the royals have a refined diet with access to skilled professional chefs, but it’s not all state banquets and gourmet dishes.

Behind closed doors, even Queen Elizabeth, King Charles and Princess Anne are occasionally forced to lower their expectations with their diet. When travelling abroad for royal tours, the late monarch would reportedly be served the equivalent of “caravan” prepared meals, according to Charles’ former pilot, Graham Laurie.

During an appearance on HELLO!’s ‘A Right Royal Podcast’ in 2023, he explained how they would feed the royals – and it was remarkably different before they changed aircraft. 

“The lovely thing was that we got all our food from British Airways at Heathrow. In the Andover, the best description was like cooking in a caravan,” he began.

“There was a small hot plate, it looked a bit like a kettle, but it was a hot jug that you could heat water up in, you could make coffee in and so forth.”

Elizabeth and Philip’s last flight in an Andover took place on 21 December 1990, when they travelled from Heathrow to RAF Benson. They went on to use BAe 146 four-engine jets, which Graham said offered a wider opportunity to cook frozen pies that Princess Anne “loved,” describing it as “a pleasant change from all the poncey first class food.”

Queen Elizabeth’s diet

Some parts of the late Queen Elizabeth’s diet wouldn’t have been affected by her travels, since they didn’t require cooking.

For example, porridge was one of her favourite breakfast foods, and Prince Philip even admitted she would eat it for every meal given the chance!

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“If it was customary to have porridge at every meal,” Prince Philip once said, “Lilibet would have it,” explained Thomas Blaikie in his book, What a thing to say to The Queen.

She also loved Earl Grey tea with no sugar and cereal, and reportedly even carried her own snacks with her.

“I used to travel on the train from London to Windsor Castle with the biscuit cake in a tin on my knee. It was half eaten”, former royal chef Darren McGrady told The Huffington Post.