James Martin has talked about what it was like to have lunch with Queen Elizabeth II and how she would have the same impact on a room as his grandmother
Chef James Martin has claimed that Prince Philip told Queen Elizabeth II off in front of him because she kept feeding biscuits to her dogs.
James, 53, said that the late Duke of Edinburgh reprimanded the late monarch for giving digestive biscuits to her beloved corgis during a lunch he attended.
Speaking on the Good Housekeeping UK podcast, James recalled being invited to Buckingham Palace for lunch in a group of six, during which the Queen brought her dogs along.
Reflecting on the encounter, he said: “The Queen was one I had lunch with her, six of us, six of us at a table, the Queen sat opposite.
“She’d invited me to Buckingham Palace and I arrived in a suit and I thought I’d got the wrong room because I’m with a lady who sells rhubarb.
“Next minute the door opened, in comes the corgis, Prince Philip walked in and she stood there and said, ‘Shall we have lunch?’ And the door opened up and there’s a table for six and I sat opposite the Queen for three hours.
“He [Prince Philip] was telling her off, she’d got this little box of biscuits, they’ve got a silver box of biscuits, digestives, she used to feed them to the dogs. The dogs are getting a sugar rush and they’re going mental all over the place, it’s brilliant. That and my gran.”
This was not the first time James has spoken about meeting Queen Elizabeth II. Speaking to Hello! in 2020, he shared what they discussed and mentioned one regret about the encounter.
He told the publication: “They pick random people, some in the public eye, some not. There was only eight of us for lunch; it was magical. The only thing I regret is that my grandmother wasn’t alive to witness it because she was a huge fan.
“We chatted about dogs, about life. She’s very polite, it was great. You don’t remember what you said because you were so nervous – you can’t believe you’re having a one-on-one conversation with the Queen for 45 minutes.”
James has also spoken about the influence of his family on his career. Recently, on the Road To Success podcast hosted by Benedict Fowler, he said that one of his biggest inspirations was his grandmother, who had the same commanding presence as Queen Elizabeth II.
He explained: “It sounds daft talking about your granny, but if I could be 10% of what my granny is, I’d be 110% a better person [than I am now].
“My granny, it sounds daft, but my granny was the same [as Queen Elizabeth], because she’d walk into a room and I don’t know if it was how I was brought up, but you were told respect and you shut up and listen. And I valued that so much.”
