Princess Diana was a ‘terrible cook’ and ‘once called Kensington Palace’s fire brigade after smelling gas while trying to make pasta, her former chef has revealed.
Darren McGrady, 58, who was personal chef to the Queen in the 1990s and also worked for Princess Diana, shared a tribute to the late royal in a video on his YouTube page to mark her 60th birthday, revealing that she was thrilled to spend time with ’12 hunky firemen’.
The chef, who is now based in Texas, said that Diana had a ‘huge impact’ on him and that she would always try to ‘one up’ him.
Revealing that Diana would feed herself on weekends if she wasn’t going out, he recalled that she tried to make simple pasta and spaghetti which she then forgot about – leading for her to call the palace fire brigade.
‘I’d cook for the princess, Monday through Friday and on weekends I’d actually leave food in the refrigerator.
‘She would just help herself to that and I used to put a little sticky note on it with a number stuff for paper add a number to it to say, put it in the microwave and press two.
‘She wasn’t a good coo. One Sunsay she had a friend come over and they decided to have some pasta.
‘She made some spaghetti sauce, and they got chatting the pasta boiled over, and it put out the pilot lights out on the gas.
‘She came into the kitchen a bit later on, she could smell gas, she called the palace fire brigade.
‘On Monday, I came into work and she came running into the kitchen.
‘She said “Darren, you won’t believe it I cooked at the weekend! But I nearly set the whole palace on fire’.
Darren McGrady, 58, who was the personal chef to the Queen in the 1990s and also worked for Princess Diana , shared a tribute to the late royal in a video on his YouTube page to mark her 60th birthday, revealing that she was thrilled to spend time with ’12 hunky firemen;’.
‘She said “I was so nervous I called the palace fire brigade, and they all came over but the best part was I had 12 hunky firemen all to myself”.
Darren added that it’s not often that you meet someone, that makes ‘a huge impact’ on your life the way Diana did.
‘I never did any charity work until I met her, and then I saw the huge difference that she made in people’s life,’ he recalled.
‘When I started cooking for her, she was patron of 119 different charities, working out at the gym every day and just looking the best she ever did.
‘I remember her coming down to the kitchen at Windsor Castle not long after Harry was been born.
‘She said “hold Harry for me I want to eat some cereals”.
Revealing that Diana (pictured) would feed herself on weekends if she wasn’t going out, he recalled that she tried to make simple pasta and spaghetti which she then forgot about – leading for her to call the palace fire brigade.
‘I told her I’ve never held a baby before in my life, and she laughed and she said, “hold Harry”.
Darren added she was ‘always in the kitchen’ and loved ‘sitting and chatting’.
‘She’d often just sit up on the counter on the chest freezer. She loved talking about Phantom of the Opera and Les Misrables,’ he explained.
‘We both loved going to the theatre. I think she always used to trump me, I would say “I went to see Phantom of the Opera got amazing seats, I was just a few rows back” and she would say “I actually went and had dinner with Andrew Lloyd Webber”. ‘
‘She wasn’t really into watching movies. She’d watch the British soaps. She loved EastEnders.
‘One say she came into the kitchen, just after breakfast and she said, “I can’t believe he died last night” and I was like “oh I’m sorry”. And she was talking about a character in EastEnders’.
‘She came into the kitchen one morning and said, “we’ve had an invite to go and watch the making of Mission Impossible at Pinewood Studios in London for me to take William and Harry”.
People look at tributes placed on the gates of Kensington Palace in London ahead of her statue unveiling today
‘They were young than they probably love the pyrotechnics and everything, she said “do you think the boys would be interested?”
‘And I remember saying, “I’m not sure about the boys but if you get to meet Tom Cruise is there”
‘She said “Darren, I’ll crack the funnies”
‘Later that day she came into the kitchen and said the boys absolutely loved it all those explosions and things.
‘She picked up some fruit, walked out and didn’t say anything that she was walking out. She said “that’s another one off the list is too short”, she’d met Tom Cruise.
‘If I’d upset her, which wasn’t often, then she would actually have lunch in a sitting room, not in the kitchen.
Royal fan John Loughrey poses with balloons as supporters gather to mark what would have been the 60th birthday of Princess Diana
‘One time, I remember coming to work in the morning, and the princess was going to the gym early and I raced back I’d been up home, and I raced back from Nottinghamshire my hometown and was pulling into Kensington, just as she was pulling out, and we stopped inches apart, and a knew only one of us was going to reverse them that was me.
‘I reversed back and she just drove off face like thunder, and she was really mad that I was speeding into the kitchen for three days, and eventually, I prepared lunch and I plated it like a smiley face, sent in for lunch.
‘She walked into the kitchen with a plate and put it down on the table and said ” I suppose you think that was funny”.
Darren’s comments come as Prince Harry has arrived at Kensington Palace to be reunited with his brother William where together they will unveil a statue of their beloved mother on her birthday after a tumultuous 18 months for their own relationship.
The siblings are marking their mother’s 60th birthday by unveiling a sculpture created in her honour by Ian Rank-Broadley and placed in the remodelled gardens she loved all packed with 4,000 of her favourite plants and flowers.
Crowds have gathered outside with Diana’s fans travelling from all over the UK to west London to be there for the poignant commemorative event toda.