Text by Katherine Cloninger Ellis • Photography Courtesy of Weldon Owen
Chef Carolyn Robb dishes about taking tea at the palace and more.
Most young girls dream of becoming a princess who lives in a colossal castle and spends her day frolicking in glorious gardens and partaking in countless tea parties as she admires the stunning surroundings. While earning a regal title is quite an impossible task, unless you’re lucky enough to be born into the royal bloodline or happen to marry well, a select few, including Chef Carolyn Robb, manage to beat the odds and have the unique opportunity to call one of England’s superb palaces their humble abode. Though Carolyn won’t typically be found attending galas with esteemed guests or donning precious jewels on a daily basis, for 13 years, she was likely to be found hard at work in the kitchen cooking a nice homemade meal for her employers, who just happened to be the Prince and Princess of Wales, Charles and Diana.
Carolyn grew up in South Africa as the youngest of five children and fell in love with cooking at a young age as she learned alongside her mother. “We had a lovely garden and always had fresh produce for our meals,” Carolyn recalls. “My mum was forever making marmalades, chutneys, and jams, and everything we ate was homemade, which was lovely.” Her interest in food only grew over time and eventually led her to enroll in a Le Cordon Bleu cookery course in the United Kingdom after she completed her studies at university. Fresh out of culinary school and with dreams larger than life, Carolyn decided to apply for the job of being the personal chef for the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, cousins of Queen Elizabeth II. Amazingly, she landed the impressive job—remarkably, her first job—and welcomed the new role with much excitement and enthusiasm. “I was very fortunate when working for the Duke and Duchess that the Prince and Princess of Wales came for dinner,” Carolyn notes. “We all lived at Kensington Palace, which is huge and has lots of separate apartments. After that dinner, I was offered an interview with the Prince and Princess. I was truly at the right place at the right time.”
In 1989 at the age of 21, after essentially being stolen away from the Duke and Duchess due to her culinary talent, Carolyn became the first female chef to work under Prince Charles, who wanted to hire someone who would have more of a “homey touch” than some of the predecessors. “The lifestyle that they led was such that they had to go to an awful lot of official functions, so they were consuming a huge amount of rich fancy food,” Carolyn explains. “When you have a personal chef, you don’t want that kind of food for every meal.” The Prince and Princess requested that the food being served should utilize the fresh organic produce found in the gardens on the property, which was an easy and familiar task to Carolyn, as that was exactly the type of cooking that she learned from her “mum.”
The menus were planned around what was in season at the time and ranged from Italian dishes, a favorite among the royal family, to meals that incorporated pheasant and venison for Charles’ tastes and lighter fare, such as salmon, chicken, and salads, for Diana. Prince William and Prince Harry, who were only four and seven when Carolyn started, enjoyed traditional British nursery food, such as sausages and mash, roast chicken, and shepherd’s pie. They became a bit more adventurous and open-minded with food when they became older.
Living in an English residence—a very famous one at that—afternoon tea is an important ritual and one of Carolyn’s very favorite meals. For more than a decade, Carolyn would orchestrate preparing teatime foods for the royal family, which usually consisted of a simple slice of fruitcake unless guests were present. The food for afternoon tea, and sometimes the beverage itself, would be made by Carolyn but always served to the Prince and Princess by the butler. The personal chef enjoyed preparing teatime foods at the extraordinary palaces to which she traveled with their Royal Highnesses so much that she dedicated a new cook- book, Tea at the Palace, to the concept. The book debuted earlier this year and explores the beauty and diversity of the 12 residences that Carolyn was privileged to experience. The lovely collection of 50 sweet and savory recipes for afternoon tea is broken up into 12 chapters, with each section honoring the distinctive character of the palace it represents. Encompassing interesting history, royal tidbits, and scrumptious fare, this brilliant ode to Carolyn’s time at the various palaces is sure to inspire your tea parties to become more elevated and a bit more British. When asked about a favorite recipe in the book, Carolyn doesn’t hesitate to mention the desserts inspired by Highgrove House, the private country residence of Prince Charles. “I love the White Chocolate and Mint Cake and the Lemon and Thyme Cake,” Carolyn divulges. “Both are pretty, fresh, simple, and summery.”
If you happen to be reading this as a real-life princess, then the account of living and taking tea amongst royals might not spark interest. But, for the rest of us who fervently daydream about sipping Earl Grey with the Queen at Buckingham Palace, the tale of Chef Carolyn Robb’s success story triggers fascination and maybe a bit of envy.
Chef Carolyn Robb’s book Tea at the Palace is available for purchase for $25 at insighteditions.com.
