Prince Charles and Duchess Camilla won’t eat garlic or spicy food because they worry about getting bad breath.
Though the 69-year-old duchess’ son Tom Parker Bowles is a respected food critic, he admits he won’t cook for the pair because his dishes are not bland enough for their tastes.
He said: "They have very, very good cooks, proper chefs, so why would they want me to do it?
"I like chillies and I like onions and garlic and as she’s got older garlic and chilies are especially a no-no and you can’t go stinking of garlic when you are shaking a few hands the next day.
"She’s amazing at scrambled eggs and usually I leave her to do, whatever it is, roast chicken or scrambled eggs, I leave her to do it.
"I usually wouldn’t cook for him (Prince Charles) most my food has chilli in it or endless spices and no, no I wouldn’t do it."
And Tom – whose father is Camilla’s ex-husband Andrew Parker Bowles – has fond memories of tucking into his mother’s cooking when he was younger.
Speaking at the Henley Literary Festival, he said: "My mother’s roast chicken [was my favourite], I dined on that literally and figuratively for many years.
"My mother was a good cook, very much, children in London, they eat Chinese, they eat Indian, they eat Thai… but when we grew up we ate pretty much British food, my father loved gardening, my mother was a good cook so we knew the seasons before the seasons."
But the 41-year-old writer isn’t a fan of his mother’s beloved Aga when it comes to cooking food.
He said: "We had an Aga, there is a huge debate about Agas, I don’t like Agas, I love them in a room but they are useless.
"I could be lynched for saying that, [mum] loves an Aga, she can only cook on an Aga.
"Without a doubt every year, the Aga always goes out at Christmas, I don’t know how, but it goes out every year… It would go out without fail suddenly, the mercury, it was gone again. You’d come down in the morning finding my aunt, my mother, cooking a turkey which is perhaps a little bit big for the top right [oven]."
No spicy food for Charles and Camilla
