Tom Parker Bowles reveals the one thing Queen Camilla never does for King Charles at home

She is known to make a great roast chicken, but the Queen rarely cooks for the King, according to her son Tom Parker Bowles.

Asked what the monarch thought of her cooking, food writer Tom replied: “I don’t think she cooks for him, I’ll be honest. They have a team of very good chefs. Actually, she does. He likes good – I don’t want to speak out of turn here – but scrambled eggs and smoked salmon… who doesn’t like scrambled eggs or roast chicken?

“So it would be something that we’d eat, definitely, but I don’t think there’s a lot of ‘honey, I’m home, what’s for dinner? I think it’s a bit more planned than that.”

The King’s stepson was speaking at the Castle Hotel in Windsor at an event to promote his latest book, Cooking & The Crown.

Asked whether he could just turn up to see the Queen at nearby Windsor Castle or whether he needed to call in advance, he replied: “It takes a bit more planning now… I probably would call or text. She can’t do WhatsApp… which is probably a good thing because you can’t send all those appalling things you get… But it’s security.”

He has previously said the app does not work on his mother’s old-fashioned Nokia handset.

© Max Mumby/Indigo

Tom also joked that the Queen would already know he was in town if she was at the Castle, adding: “She’s very sort of beady on these things. She would know I was here and she would say, ‘come over,’ without a shadow of a doubt.“

The food critic and author politely swerved a question about whether he had watched the Duchess of Sussex’s new show, With Love, Meghan, saying: “No, I have no idea about that.”

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But he did discuss the importance of great hospitality in smoothing international relationships.

“This is food as soft diplomacy, or souffle diplomacy. It still happens to this day, to bring world leaders, whether it be Mr Trump or whoever it might be, to sit down and eat together. That is the unifying power of food, and that, for me, shows that diplomatic soft power, because it seems Trump is very excited about coming back, and great, if it keeps everything peaceful.”