Queen Camilla’s son Tom Parker Bowles recalled in a new interview the embarrassing mistake he made when he met Queen Elizabeth II for the first time.
The 49-year-old food critic was talking about his new book, Cooking & the Crown, which traces the history of royal culinary cooking through the tastes and preferences of Britain’s king and queens.
talking to the independentTom said the book was originally only going to include royal recipes and anecdotes between the reigns of Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth II, giving it a “degree of separation” as he had only met the late monarch twice.
The first time was when he was eight, Tom recalled, adding: “I was so scared I bowed instead of bowing.”
When greeting the monarch or a member of the royal family, men traditionally bow their heads (a neck bow) while women bow slightly.
Queen Camilla’s son Tom Parker Bowles has recalled the embarrassing mistake he made when he met Queen Elizabeth II for the first time.
The next time he would meet the late queen would be on the occasion of Camilla’s wedding to King Charles, when he and his sister Laura Lopes ‘snuck off to get a cigarette or something’ and got lost in Windsor Castle. .
When the brother and sister duo were discovered by the “magnetic and lovely” Queen, who was accompanied by her beloved corgis, Tom said they “followed her like two quite terrified but amazed puppies.”
Since the Queen’s death two years ago, his book has become somewhat “closer to home”, and Tom includes his mother Camilla’s recipes, as well as the secret to making his stepfather’s favorite green omelette.
Tom recently appeared on an episode of ITV1’s Love Your Weekend with Alan Titchmarsh to promote Cooking & the Crown, which was released last month.
During his segment on the show, Tom shared that food was always an important part of family life when he grew up in Wiltshire with his mother and father, Andrew Parker Bowles, Camilla’s first husband.
He described Camilla as a “good cook, a very basic English cook” who hates following recipes and doesn’t like baking.
Tom said to Titchmarsh: ‘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.
‘You know, his roast chicken, which I talk about incessantly… “well, just do it.” So you would have to be attentive.
Queen Camilla’s son explained that he felt so intimidated by the late monarch that he ended up bowing instead of bowing.
Queen Camilla acknowledged her cooking skills are “limited” in an interview with Tom Tom in Mail On Sunday’s You magazine in 2022.
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.”
Tom also recently revealed that his mother Camilla is not part of their family’s WhatsApp group, because she still uses an old Nokia phone “for security reasons”.
He also confessed that he has found it difficult to locate his mother since she became Queen Consort of Great Britain, adding that he only learns of her whereabouts when Tom sees her on television.
he said Woman and Home magazine: ‘She’s working a lot harder, she’s always worked pretty hard (so) it’s still like that, I call my mom, she doesn’t answer, I watch TV (and think) “Ah! She’s in Jersey.” “‘
The 49-year-old previously described his mother, Queen Consort Camilla, as a “good cook, a very basic English cook” who hates following recipes and doesn’t like baking.
Royal fans won’t be surprised to learn about the Queen’s choice of phone, as she previously revealed that she scolds her grandchildren for using their phones at the table.
Speaking to the Mail in 2022, ahead of her 75th birthday, Camilla expressed concern about social media, which she described as a “double-edged sword”, and admitted that she often tells her grandchildren to put their phones away “upside down” .
“Families don’t sit down to dinner anymore,” he said. ‘Because I am old, in the old days we all sat down (to eat). Now everyone is on their devices. That makes me quite angry!’
Tom shares two children, Lola, 17, and Freddy, 14, with his ex-wife Sara Buys.