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The British Royal family is notorious for having rules about everything, including how to eat. Whether it’s their strict avoidance of any shellfish when not in England. Or the late Queen Elizabeth banning garlic from the royal kitchens, their tastes usually run towards the conservative and more traditional.
Last week, Kate Middleton made some waves in this perception when she visited the Oxford House Nursing Home in Slough. The Princess of Wales met 109-year-old resident Nora, alongside her grandchildren Lynne and John. Nora had celebrated her milestone birthday only two days before Middleton on January 7th. The pair bonded over the fact that they were both Capricorns, but it wasn’t the only thing they seemed to have in common.
When asked what her favourite food was, Nora promptly replied that she loved brussels sprouts and kidneys, to which Middleton exclaimed, “I love kidneys too.” This response surprised the people around her as well as the general public when the news got out. This is probably down to the fact that offal in general is a less popular food choice these days and doesn’t get much love in high culinary circles.
It also seems at odds with her royal title perhaps because the use of kidneys in English cooking is hardly prestigious and kidneys were a fairly humble meal in history. The word offal itself derives from 14th century England where it meant ‘fall off’, referring to the cuts of meat that a butcher would usually discard while carving. As such, offal dishes like steak and kidney pie and devilled kidneys became a way to utilise these less-loved cuts to the best of their ability and on a budget.
So while the world may have moved on from offal and enjoying the flavours of kidneys, Kate Middleton’s surprising admission of her favourite food in fact dates back to classic British fare and in turn, is keeping the long and often abused legacy of classical English cooking alive
