The Popular Seasoning You'll Never Find At Buckingham Palace

What does the King or Queen of England eat? Well, theoretically, anything they want. Queen Victoria would have the Buckingham Palace larders stocked with decadent goods like Virginia hams, while Queen Elizabeth II often indulged in venison burgers and French cuisine. But that doesn't mean the royals are completely unfettered, as King Charles III, known for being conscious of both his health and the environment, would attest. Following a rule set by his mother, the royal kitchens do not use garlic — albeit for a rather mundane reason.

The royal family might seem terribly aloof to us common folk, but they spend a good amount of time interacting with people face-to-face, which an abundance of garlic could make quite unpleasant. Can you imagine an audience between the king and the prime minister spoiled by an inopportune waft of garlic from the king's lunch? For this reason, garlic is banned, and caution is exercised when using onions. Although shellfish was reportedly once banned due to the risk of food poisoning, King Charles III gladly eats it from time to time these days.

So now that we know what King Charles III doesn't eat, what is it that he does eat? According to a former royal chef, lots of fresh, locally sourced ingredients. Having cooked for Charles (as well as Prince William and Harry) for more than a decade, Carolyn Robb became well-acquainted with the future monarch's eating habits. He favored fresh produce that was in season — strawberries, for instance, were eaten during the summer, not imported during the winter. He had a taste for local honey and garden-grown asparagus (presumably not in the same dish), and when he was at the Sandringham country estate, he favored venison and pheasant. In fact, a shortage of pheasants at Sandringham in 2025 reportedly infuriated the king.

As a passionate environmentalist (private jet notwithstanding, although we suppose he can't very well fly coach), King Charles III also makes a point to cut down on food waste. According to Robb, certain foods were repurposed as chicken feed, while others were baked into a quiche for the next day. Perhaps this was what inspired Charles to make his coronation day dish — the equivalent to Elizabeth's coronation chicken – a quiche. But while the king's coronation called for "big lunches" across the country, King Charles reportedly refuses to eat lunch.