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SOCIETY: From the Palace to Dallas

Darren McGrady, the former chef for Princess Diana, is now a private chef in Dallas. For years, he kept quiet about his former boss, but, after NBC’s "secret" tapes and Paul Burrell’s controversial book, My Royal Duty, McGrady sat down to dinner to
By Nancy Nichols |

ROYAL DUTY: McGrady, who says the princess always made everyone feel at ease, is working on a cookbook that will include William and Harry’s favorites.

Darren McGrady sits at the chef’s table at Aurora and adjusts his turquoise Hermès tie. “The princess gave me this,” he says as a waiter sets an amuse bouche on the table. “I still feel close to her when I wear it.”

He is referring, of course, to the late princess of Wales, Diana Spencer. After 11 years of cooking for Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace, McGrady moved to Kensington Palace with the princess after her split from Prince Charles. From 1993 until her death in 1997, McGrady was Diana’s personal chef, helping her recover from bulimia and preparing William and Harry’s daily meals. After Diana’s death, McGrady moved to Dallas to become the personal chef for businessman Charles Wyly and his wife Dee. Although a publisher offered him close to a million pounds to share details of meals he prepared for Diana and her suitors (and other dicey details), McGrady remained silent.

That was until McGrady’s close friend and Diana’s former butler, Paul Burrell, published the controversial book A Royal Duty. In it, Burrell gave his version of life behind the doors of Kensington Palace. “I was upset about Burrell’s making some information public,” McGrady says. “Paul and I swore we would never talk of such things in print.” Then, in March, NBC aired private tapes of Diana, recorded when she was deeply depressed and suffering from bulimia. Outraged at the negative publicity, McGrady sat down to dinner to set the record straight.

How he got to Buckingham Palace: “I was working at the Savoy Hotel in London in 1982, and I’d always dreamed of working at the Palace. I applied, and they accepted. My mom and I were real royalists, and the night before the royal wedding, we camped out on the Mall. We were in the front of the barrier as the royal procession passed, and just as Lady Diana’s coach got to us, she turned and waived to the other side of the crowd. That was my first glance of my future boss.”

Working at Buckingham Palace: “The kitchen at Buckingham Palace is literally a mile and a quarter from the royal dining rooms, so it’s difficult to do meals in courses. The logistics operate much like a hotel in that the queen might have a charity lunch in one room while Prince Edward would be entertaining in another. The queen has her own dairy at Windsor Castle where Jersey cows from the Channel Islands produce full-fat milk and unpasteurized cream. Of course, it is illegal to sell unpasteurized dairy, but the royals have been doing this for centuries. The queen mother had it all of her life, and she lived to be 102.”

The first time he met Diana: “After two weeks of working at BP, I was sent off to Scotland to Balmoral Castle, where the queen spends her summers. I was working in the pastry kitchen with my friend Robert when we heard a commotion. It was the princess, and she walked up to us, and Robert introduced me. I was nervous and turned beet red. From then on, she set out to embarrass me—that’s her nature—each time she saw me.”

Dancing with Diana: “At the end of each season, the queen throws the Ghillies Ball, a big party to say thank you to the staff for five weeks of hard work. I was leaning against the back wall, watching all the royals dancing about with their tiaras, kilts, and bands of Balmoral tartan, when the princess came to me and insisted I dance with her. I was beet red again, which delighted her. She took me in her arms for the St. Bernard’s waltz. ’Let’s have some fun,’ she said, spinning me into Princess Margaret. Then she spun me into Prince Andrew. I looked in horror as she spun me toward the queen, who is only 5-foot-2. We just missed her.”

Trouble brewing: “The staff talks, and we all knew that things weren’t going right. We’d heard that the princess was bingeing. I got to know her so well that … I could read from afar if she were happy or sad. In 1992, the Andrew Morton book came out detailing the princess’ bulimia and her husband’s affair [with Camilla Parker Bowles]. The royals were extremely upset, and they asked the princess if she had talked with Mr. Morton. Of course, she said no. In reality, her doctor, James Coldhurst, had told the princess that she was so stressed and, rather than be a loose cannon, it would do well for her speak on the tapes [that eventually were used by Andrew Morton for a book]. Robert Fellows, who is married to her sister Jane, recorded them. It was terrible advice. She had so much bad advice around her. It totally backfired on her, and the book sealed the marriage split.”

The divorce: “It upset her tremendously that she lost the title Your Royal Highness after the divorce. But I continued to call her that. It was odd because she would …  straightaway make you feel so at ease, but I always had in the back of my mind that I was talking to the future king of England’s mother. On and off she was battling with bulimia. She joked to me about it. ’I better not eat this. I’ll just go and throw it up,’ she’d say. In times of stress, it was still there. I started to get her to eat healthy and joked back, ’Why would you eat all this luxury stuff if you’re just going to throw it up?’”

Life at the Palace after Prince Charles: “Once the princess heard that I was interested, she insisted I come to [Kensington Palace]. On my first night there, she burst in and said, ’Welcome. I hope you’re going to be happy here,’ and gave me a little gift. I was responsible for the diets of the princess and for Princes William and Harry. It’s funny how they would go to Prince Charles’ home, where there were sit-down dinners and the boys were trained how to use a fork and other formalities. Then they would come home to Mummy [at Kensington Palace], and it would be a carton of ice cream in front of the TV. She made them normal. It was easy to cook healthy things for her when she was on her own, but when the boys came home, I would take the same ingredients, like roast potatoes and chicken, and cook them two ways. The potatoes went in hot oil for the boys, which horrified the princess. So I would dip the potatoes in egg whites and bake them for her. The food always looked identical when she was eating with the boys.”

The princess’ favorite meal: “She would be quite happy with a jacket potato and a salad. She loved sliced foie gras, eggs Suzette, steamed trout, calf’s liver, and lots of fresh pasta.”

The tragic night: “I got up on Sunday and was getting ready for work. The princess and the boys were due to arrive. I put the TV on and saw a picture of the princess with the dates on the background, and I thought, ’They only do that when people are dead.’ Stunned, I went into KP, and the whole day went by in slow motion. It was eerie to walk around the gardens and see thousands of people just standing with flowers, and there was no noise.”

The aftermath: “If Paul Burrell really had the princess’ interest at heart, he would have  smashed [the tapes] to smithereens. After the princess died, he came across her personal letters that should have been burned, but he was collecting them. Not only that, but he had been taking notes, plotting all along, I’m sure, to write a book. He really fancied himself as her friend and not her butler. It is frightening to me that a man whom I worked with for 15 years is saying these things. You know there are two boys that are still young and vulnerable.”

The conspiracy letter: “In a moment of sadness, the princess wrote a letter predicting her own death. She’d said her brakes were crunching a little bit, and she thought that someone was trying to tamper with [them]. After her death, Paul made a big deal by saying the letter was addressed to him. I know it wasn’t, because all her notes start with ’Dear Darren’ or ’Dear Maria.’ Well, the note starts, ’I have.’ Well, I’ve got many envelopes with my name on the front in her handwriting, and I could have just as easily slipped a note like that into it and claimed it was sent to me.”

The secret tapes airing on NBC: “It was spooky and strange to listen to The Boss saying those things. Her early years with Prince Charles were a traumatic time. She was only 19. It was all so overwhelming. She was under a lot of pressure. She knew all along about Camilla and was dealing with bulimia. Now history is repeating itself: Prince Harry is 20, and all these things are coming out. What must it be like for him to read and see such things about his mother and father?”

Where he eats in Dallas: “We don’t go out much. We have two small children and another on the way, so we tend to go to Macaroni Grill or Cozymel’s. When I first came here, I decided to take my wife Wendy to the Mansion for our anniversary. We had a horrendous experience. The service was unbearable, and the food came out cold, and when I didn’t leave a tip, the waiter followed me out to the valet to complain.”

Cooking in Dallas: “The Wylys have been so gracious to me, and they encourage me to do my charity work and my book. They do a lot of charity parties, which I love to do. Plus it’s nice to be able to cook chicken-fried steak for them one night and then something that I prepared for a feast at Buckingham Palace the next.”

Where to get the recipes: “I am currently writing a cookbook combining recipes and reminiscences of my experiences. I will include traditional recipes from the Savoy, banquets I prepared for foreign heads of government, William and Harry’s favorites, and some of the princess’ favorite healthy recipes. I was part of the princess’ life. I was there, and I feel so privileged. I am now on the board of Pink Ribbons Crusade, a charity that raises money for breast cancer. They have more than 2,500 pieces of British memorabilia, including a collection of the princess’ dresses, many that I remember seeing her wear. It’s a wonderful way for me to spend my time, getting people to remember the good things she did.”

Photo: Lisa Means

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