How a Swiss health retreat influenced Princess Diana’s royal breakfast routine

Many of us are creatures of habit, none more so than Princess Diana, at least when it came to her go-to breakfast, according to a former palace chef.

The surprising source for her favourite breakfast treat? A Swiss clinic that came up with the recipe that is now eaten by thousands of people 20 years later.

Her former chef Darren McGrady started working for the royals at Buckingham Palace in 1982 but became personal chef to Diana and her sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, at their home in Kensington Palace in 1993.

On a recent YouTube post, McGrady talked about his time working with the late princess and explained that she became obsessed with a then-unknown dish called overnight oats in 1993, as she worked to improve her health.

“She actually went to a Swiss health clinic, and there she had these overnight oats. They were actually called bircher muesli, and they were invented by a Swiss nutritionist,” McGrady said.

“She thought they were really, really good and all the ingredients were super healthy.

“She stole the recipe, came back and said, ‘Darren, I want these for breakfast every day.'”

He explained that overnight oats became popular around 2012 but Princess Diana started eating the dish in 1993 at an important transition period in her life.

“When I became Princess Diana’s chef, she got her life back on track,” he said.

“She was a patron of 119 different charities, she was working out at the gym three days a week and just looking the best she ever did.

“She said, ‘Darren, you take care of all the fats, and I’ll take care of the carbs at the gym.'”

After tasting the results himself, the former royal chef and author understood why Diana was obsessed with the healthy, early morning meal.

“Now, I have to admit that when I was making this at Kensington Palace for Princess Diana, it was so good, I actually used to double the recipe so that the chef got it for breakfast, too.”

McGrady spent over a decade working for different members of the British royal family and said the late Queen’s breakfast tastes were much simpler than her former daughter-in-law’s.

He admitted that cooking for Queen Elizabeth and her extended household was a huge operation, though the late monarch preferred plain and simple food in the morning.

“The Queen’s breakfast was at 9 AM, served in her room,” he said.

“She’d help herself to cereal from a Tupperware container, especially Special K, even though there were 20 chefs available to cook anything.”

Dessert, however, was a different matter as McGrady reveals the queen had a sweet tooth and could not resist chocolate, especially if it was “over 60 per cent cocoa”.