Queen Camilla’s son Tom Parker Bowles has revealed his mother is a “good cook” but never follows a recipe and doesn’t like measurements or cooking.
The food critic appears on the latest episode of Love Your Weekend with Alan Titchmarsh, which airs on ITV1 on Sunday at 9.30am, to promote his new book Cooking & The Crown.
During his segment on the popular show, Tom talks about how food was always an important part of family life when he was growing up in Wiltshire with his mother and father, Andrew Parker Bowles, Camilla’s first husband.
He says: ‘MMy father was, and still is, I was going to say, a great gardener, a good gardener in your company. He is a good gardener. He was very obsessed with his garden, so… we could follow the seasons through the garden.
And my mother was a good cook. He is still a good cook, a very basic English cook. I didn’t like baking, I didn’t like measurements… or scales, or recipes either.
Queen Camilla’s son Tom Parker Bowles (pictured together in September 2024) has revealed that his mother is a “good cook” but never follows a recipe and doesn’t like measurements or cooking.
‘You know, his roast chicken, which I talk about incessantly… “well, just do it.” So you would have to be attentive.
He also reveals how the first Sainsbury’s to come to Chippenham was like “something from outer space” for him and his sister Laura Lopes, after spending their childhood having everything seasonal, locally sourced or organic.
Tom remembers: “You could enjoy the delight of angels… and Coke and white bread and everything we’re supposed to hate now; these super-processed foods were, for us, the most exciting and exciting thing.” .
‘I mean, forget organic, forget seasonal, forget local. We wanted that. That’s why it’s funny how things change now. You know, what was a necessity in the old days is now seen as a kind of lifestyle choice.
“But yeah, we had a really happy, food-filled childhood in the countryside,” the writer adds, before explaining how his mother’s “downtime” is now more important since she became Queen.
‘It’s that thing of thinking where my mother is and then I watch television or read the newspaper. “Ah there she is.” “This way you know that they take care of her and that she is happy,” she explains when asked if it is more difficult to see her parents now.
Tom continues: ‘I have children. My sister has children and is a very good grandmother. So let’s go to his house in Wiltshire and we can relax there.
The food critic also touches on the king’s love of the countryside and farming, revealing how his children call Charles ‘Uppa’ and how ‘they have grown up with this man who everyone loves and considers wonderful.’
During his segment on the popular show, Tom talks about how food was always an important part of family life when he was growing up in Wiltshire with his mother (pictured) and father, Andrew Parker Bowles, Camilla’s first husband.
In 2022, in an interview with her son Tom in Mail On Sunday’s You magazine, Camilla (pictured in 2021 in London with the King) confessed that her cooking skills are limited.
In 2022, in an interview with her son Tom in Mail On Sunday’s You magazine, Camilla confessed that her cooking skills are limited.
Describing her cooking style as “nothing too complicated, fussy or complicated”, Camilla said she learned to cook by watching her mother, Rosalind Shand, who made food the “heart” of family life.
“One of my earliest memories is preparing those peas and beans with my mother, an accomplished cook,” she said. ‘I learned from my mother. I have never followed a recipe in my life.
“On Friday nights they let us choose our dinner,” he recalled. “I always opted for frozen chicken pot pie, much to my mother’s despair.”
In the 1960s, the Queen frequently visited London’s best restaurants, such as Alexander’s on the King’s Road.
“I remember how excited I was when I first had shrimp and avocado at Alexander’s… The combination seemed incredibly exotic,” Camilla said at the time.
The Shand family spent summers on the island of Ischia, near Naples, which, according to the royal, “instilled a lifelong passion for Italian food.”
However, she took little credit for her restaurant critic son’s refined palate, describing herself as “never the most adventurous of cooks.”
Instead, Camilla specialized in simple, healthy food when Tom and his sister Laura were growing up in Wiltshire.
‘My cooking is based on good ingredients. Nothing too messy, fussy or complicated. Lots of tarragon chicken, scrambled eggs with bacon, and chicken casserole. On Sundays there were always barbecues.
‘The children ate a lot of cheese on toast. We had a garden… so we ate seasonally before it became fashionable. That’s exactly what you did on the field back then.
He added: ‘One of my favorite foods is baked bean toast. Always Heinz. And fish and chips freshly made and wrapped in paper. That smell. There is nothing better than a good fish and chips.
Alan Titchmarsh’s Love Your Weekend returns on Sunday 13 October at 9.30am on ITV1, ITVX and STV.