London Savoy Hotel-trained chef Darren McGrady knows his way around a royal palace or two and is equally familiar with some of the finer homes in the Park Cities and Preston Hollow.
Following the celebrated wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer, the young culinarian dreamed of being a royal chef, so he wrote a letter to the Queen.
“Two weeks later, I had an interview,” he said, smiling. “Not long after that, I was rattling pans in the royal kitchens.”
He spent the next 11 years traveling around the world with the Queen and cooking for her at her residences, Windsor Castle and Balmoral Castle, and on Her Majesty’s Yacht Brittania.
“The Queen had 20 chefs,” he explained, “and I became that familiar face in the kitchen to Princess Diana.”
When she and Prince Charles separated, Diana called McGrady, asking him to be chef at Kensington Palace for her, William, and Harry. In the film Spencer (2021), Kristen Stewart played Diana, while Sean Harris from Mission: Impossible played Darren McGrady.
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“In the opening scene, when the Princess gets out of the car and says, ‘Hello, Darren,’ I get goosebumps watching that, still,” he admitted.
McGrady remained private chef to the Princess for four years, until her tragic death in a car accident. Deciding it was time for a change, he distributed his résumé and became private chef to the family of Dee and Charles Wylie in Highland Park.
“I moved across as their private chef for 11 years,” he recalled, “then started my own catering company, Eating Royally.”
In between, he wrote his first two cookbooks, Eating Royally and The Royal Chef at Home.
“Now, I have a team of chefs, loads of servers, and a great front office team, too,” he noted. “I can’t tell you how many beef tenderloin dinners we do. It’s a Highland Park special. But one of our popular things, certainly that side of town, has been afternoon teas. I do a little history and etiquette with the tea, as well.”
McGrady noted an upturn in local afternoon teas since shows such as The Crown and Downton Abbey became popular. Favorite tea pastries of the royal family are often included, such as the chef’s chocolate biscuit cake Prince William chose for his groom’s cake.
Other oft-requested local favorite dishes include the aforementioned beef tenderloin with a wild mushroom whisky-cream sauce (a favorite of the Queen), sticky toffee pudding, and McGrady’s signature bread and butter pudding — a favorite of Princess Diana, and a version she once told a Daily Mail reporter was the “best in the world.”
“We do everything, from American to Greek to French,” he said of the variety of requests, including many box-lunches. “We just did an eight-course Chinese New Year dinner.”
His popular YouTube channel, which surged during the pandemic, is filled with stories, recipes, and techniques, boasting nearly half a million subscribers.
“I would say half of our events are in Highland Park, University Park, Preston Hollow, that area,” he observed. “It’s the quality. I think that’s what makes us stand out.”
