By CHARLOTTE PEARSON METHVEN
PUBLISHED: 23:17 GMT, 2 May 2015 | UPDATED: 23:18 GMT, 2 May 2015
As chef to Prince Charles and Princess Diana, Carolyn Robb witnessed first-hand the family’s ups and downs. Here she shares her memories – and the recipes she cooked for the royal household, including Prince Harry’s favourite treacle tarts
A modest cottage in a village near Reading is perhaps not the setting in which one would expect to encounter one of the closest witnesses to the doomed marriage of Prince Charles and the late Diana, Princess of Wales. But it is here that I have come to meet Carolyn Robb, private chef to HRH The Prince of Wales from 1989 to 2000.
Carolyn, slim with a cropped hairstyle not unlike that which Diana once sported, has kept her light under a bushel, until now. But that is set to change with the release of The Royal Touch, a cookery book and also an homage to the family she grew to adore, living and working with them at Kensington Palace and Highgrove, and accompanying Charles on engagements, during a tumultuous decade. She joined the household when William and Harry were seven and four, went on to observe at close hand Charles and Diana’s divorce, Diana’s subsequent death, and the instalment of Camilla Parker Bowles as consort (Carolyn’s most recent contact with the family was when she catered for Camilla’s food-writer son Tom’s wedding in 2005). A Christmas card from the Princess of Wales
Given the vantage point from which she observed our heirs to the throne, it’s amazing that it has taken Carolyn so long to write a book. (Other insiders, such as former butler Paul Burrell, have not been so restrained.) But Carolyn, I quickly ascertain, is respectful and reserved in a way that seems at odds with the modern world of tell-all books, reality TV and over-sharing on social media. She’s a carry-over from a gentler age, even though she is only 49. It’s easy to see why the prince felt comfortable having her close. Carolyn’s cookery style is also old-fashioned and understated. No elimination diets or green-juice blogs for her: ‘I advocate a common-sense approach,’ she tells me as we chat in her compact, no-frills kitchen with wooden worktops and shelves lined with jars of every staple imaginable. ‘My recipes are made with ingredients that can be found at Waitrose; you don’t need speciality shops. I have sympathy for people with wheat and dairy intolerances, but I don’t suggest that the general population sign up to fad diets and exclude whole food groups. My parents lived to 89 and 92. As long as you use fresh, quality ingredients, and avoid processed foods, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t have a bit of everything.’ Thus it is that in her recipes you won’t find many fat-free, gluten-free or dairy-free alternatives.
Instead, The Royal Touch is a lovingly pulled together collection of very English recipes inspired by Carolyn’s time in the royal household. It lifts the lid, ever so discreetly, on domestic life with the Waleses, peppered with copies of handwritten notes Carolyn received from both Charles and Diana. Charles, in one, refers to her ‘deft touch’; in another, he describes her first course as ‘a triumph’ and thanks her for being ‘such a star’; there’s even one messily written with his left hand because he had broken his right arm playing polo. Diana assures Carolyn that all her hard work ‘does not ever go unnoticed’ and tells her how much she enjoyed meeting her mother; in another, the princess admits to feeling ‘overwhelmed’ and thanks Carolyn, for ‘always coping so well’. A particularly sweet note from the princess reads just, ‘Mummy says it’s okay,’ referring to Prince Harry’s request for one of the mini treacle tarts that Carolyn kept in supply for him (she had told him he must first ask Mummy – who was always ‘very involved’ in the boys’ diets, never delegating this to staff).
The book brims with nostalgic musings about victuals such as wild mushrooms foraged from Balmoral in Scotland, salmon from the river there, game from Sandringham in Norfolk, and plums picked from the trees at Highgrove, all inspiration for Carolyn’s recipes. There are puddings aplenty – the treacle tarts Harry was so fond of, plus the chocolate biscuit cake that William had re-created for his wedding (the one made for him by Carolyn as a child was his favourite cake). There are the nursery favourites: crumble, trifle, eton mess, queen of puddings. ‘I wanted to call the book A Trifle Royal, but my publisher thought it wouldn’t work in America.’
Carolyn is now a single mother to two young daughters, having tragically lost her partner suddenly to pancreatic cancer, just as they were set to marry. She was raised near Durban in South Africa by an English mother and South African father and moved to London after dropping out of university. ‘I always knew I wanted to cook, so it seemed pointless to be studying languages.’ She found herself in Kensington Palace, aged 21, when the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester hired her after she completed her Cordon Bleu cookery course. The transition between the two royal households came about two years later when Charles and Diana dined one evening with the Gloucesters and were so impressed with Carolyn’s cooking that they called her for an interview the next day. So she moved apartments within Kensington Palace to take up residence with its most famous inhabitants. Carolyn insists this led to no rancour between the families and she is still on very good terms with the Gloucesters.
‘It was a dream come true,’ she says. ‘I grew up with a mum who was very much a royalist. Preparing roast chicken and shepherd’s pie for a family was what I wanted to do. I was in the right place at the right time,’ she says modestly. ‘Prince Charles had always had male chefs and I think he wanted to try something different, that home touch you get with a girl.’ A royal Christmas card
One imagines that the prince, what with the turbulence taking root in his home life, was probably not looking to have a challenging character in his kitchen. Carolyn nods: ‘A job like this is as much about personality and temperament as about cooking skills. I was very quiet, and that was probably a good deal to do with why they chose me. Their needs had to come first. I was cooking sumptuous feasts, but often all I had time to eat was a piece of toast and a coffee, as I worked through mealtimes.’
Carolyn never resented this. In the Prince of Wales she found someone whose belief in the value of seasonal, sustainable food was a perfect fit with her own. ‘Growing up in South Africa, I ate nothing processed. My father grew his own fruit and vegetables and it was easier and cheaper to feed us five children from the garden.’ Carolyn adds that her parents – who relocated to England for the final years of their lives, both passing away within the past two years – continued in this vein until the end. ‘Dad was still growing spinach and raspberries aged 89 and Mum was making jam even after she had lost her sight.’ Carolyn now lives with her daughters, Lucy, aged six, and Mandy, two, in her parents’ cottage, tending her father’s vegetable garden and an allotment, drawing on her experience with Prince Charles for inspiration.
‘The prince had incredible foresight about food. I hated that he was mocked for being “weird”. I learned so much from him. You would never feed him a strawberry in December,’ she says affectionately. ‘He was so proud of his produce. Whenever he entertained, he wanted to show it off. I’ll never forget the carrots he grew in different colours.’ The two would spend hours together in the garden at Highgrove, discussing menus and picking herbs to complement each dish. ‘I felt so lucky: while most chefs are on the phone ordering their carrots, I was with the gardener sourcing seeds. A thank-you note from Charles, and a birthday card from Harry
‘People assume royals eat caviar and lobster at every meal, but that could not be further from the truth. It was more often a plate of asparagus that had been picked an hour before.’ She insists the prince is not picky. ‘He is particular.’ Among the guests she cooked for in his homes – who would ‘wander into the kitchen to ask for recipes’ – were Elton John, Stephen Fry, Emma Thompson and Barbra Streisand.
(‘I remember her asking for an egg-white omelette when those were a health craze in America. I thought, “How strange!” But I made one for her.’) Carolyn is still close friends with many of the other household staff, who became like family. ‘It was a wonderful atmosphere where we all helped each other out – chefs, nannies, butlers, valets, security, the princess’s dresser. The kitchen was the centre of it all – everyone would be popping in and out.’
As well as keeping the plates spinning at home, Carolyn spent much of her time travelling abroad with Prince Charles. ‘The first tour I did was with the prince and princess to Brazil. After that, it was always just the prince...’ She trails off, refusing to be drawn on the deteriorating state of the royal marriage. Trinidad, Guyana, Mexico, Kuwait, Bhutan, Nepal and Hong Kong (Carolyn was on the royal yacht during the handover) were just a few of the places she accompanied Charles to, preparing three meals a day for him and his entourage. ‘He liked to have his own food with him.’ Thus, large cool bags of English supplies came on tour. ‘He couldn’t risk going down with a bad stomach when he was so busy,’ Carolyn explains. Lunch was often a sandwich in the car. The prince’s favourite was her soda bread with home-made pesto. Supper was often late when he returned from a day of engagements.
Princess Diana was ‘less of a foodie’ and didn’t share Charles’s passion for the provenance of ingredients. ‘She had her share of protein because she took a lot of exercise, and she loved soufflés and lamb, but she ate mostly salads.’ As Carolyn talks about them, it is clear how much they were very different people leading separate lives. After the divorce Carolyn stayed on as Charles’s chef, primarily at Highgrove because his apartment in St James’s Palace was small. ‘I could have gone with either of them, but Charles chose me. It was all very sad. Diana was so generous and thoughtful. She was always coming into the kitchen for a chat. She had no airs and graces and was wonderful with her children.’ She is full of praise for the Queen, ‘the most warm, cosy granny with her grandsons. I remember seeing her at William’s confirmation and thinking you couldn’t wish for a more lovely grandmother.’ Of the boys, she says: ‘William was very much the older brother. If Harry ever forgot to thank me, he would kick him into line.’ They were also good little eaters. ‘The dishes of vegetables went up to the nursery and came back empty. Later on, when the boys were at Eton and had access to a kitchen, they would come back and say, “Carolyn, how do we make a bolognese sauce or a chicken kiev?” and I would show them. They were keen to have a few dishes they could do for themselves.’
Carolyn recalls with a shudder the awful evening when William and Harry returned to Highgrove following their mother’s funeral. She had remained there while Charles and the princes were on their annual visit to Balmoral when she heard of the accident in Paris. ‘It was too awful. There can be nothing sadder than that night, those two little boys coming in after saying goodbye to their mother. I gave them supper and thought, “I wish I knew what to say.” I almost gave them a hug, but didn’t. I felt they needed space.’ It is this same impulse not to crowd them that has caused Carolyn to keep a distance from the royals since her departure – a decision she describes as ‘very emotional’, taken because, ‘after 11 years, the prospect of getting my evenings and weekends back was appealing’. She wanted more time to exercise and look after herself and to be with her ageing parents who had recently relocated to the UK.
‘Initially after I left, I felt lost and kept waiting for my pager to go off!’ But she soon readjusted and now she has her beloved daughters, who she relishes cooking with. ‘We bake a loaf of bread together every weekend. And we often make pesto.’ She adds: ‘You can’t show a child a basil leaf and expect them to like it. They need to understand what you can do with it.’ Going forward, Carolyn would like to write another book, showing parents how to encourage in their children a love of food and cooking; and she would like a line of culinary products. But she’s not interested in a TV series. ‘I admire people like Nigella, but I prefer to keep a lower profile.’
It is a testament to her discretion that, until now, Carolyn has stepped back and not ‘cashed in’ on her royal connections. She did not contact William when he got married or send anything when Prince George was born. ‘Out of respect, I don’t bother them. They have so many people around them all the time. I’ve never wanted to be another hanger-on, adding to all that.
‘It was a fantastic time in my life, but now they’re doing different things, and I’m doing different things. But I do like to reminisce.’