Tom Parker Bowles has offered a rare glimpse into his childhood, revealing his mother, Queen Camilla’s, approach to home cooking.
During an appearance on Table Manners with Jessie & Lennie Ware, alongside Henry Jeffreys, the 50-year-old food writer fondly recalled his favorite childhood meals—including his mother’s signature roast chicken. However, there was one dish she refused to make: gravy.
“I suppose I go on about it so much, but my mom’s roast chicken was the best,” he shared. “She’d never make gravy, but she would cut off that fatty bit—the part that hangs over—and place it on top. Then she’d pour all the juices over your chicken, and that was it. A baked potato, and that was it.”
Tom also reminisced about a cherished family tradition—Friday night fish and chips, followed by a trip to the video rental store.
“The fish and chip shop was in our local town, so we’d go to the video store afterward,” he recalled. “She told them I wasn’t allowed to rent 18-rated films, so I’d get Lethal Weapon or The Delta Force—whatever I could. This was just before the Video Recordings Act, so they weren’t always rated. But she knew all about it. Then you’d get fish and chips, a video, and a Coke… it was the best.”
When asked about Camilla’s cooking skills, Tom admitted she no longer cooks as much, given her royal duties.
“She’s busy these days, but when she was raising two kids in Wiltshire in the ’70s and ’80s, she cooked a lot,” he explained. “She wasn’t a recipe follower, though. She’d just grab a chicken, shove a lemon up its [explicit], slather it in butter, and pop it in the oven. That was dinner!”
His comments come after he recently shared that Camilla rarely cooks for King Charles, as the royal household has a team of skilled chefs.
“I don’t think she cooks for him, to be honest,” he admitted. “They have excellent chefs. Though, actually, she does. He likes good food—I don’t want to speak out of turn—but scrambled eggs and smoked salmon… who doesn’t love scrambled eggs or roast chicken? So it’s definitely something they’d eat. But I doubt it’s a case of ‘Honey, I’m home, what’s for dinner?’ It’s a bit more planned than that.”
