Queen Camilla is very serious about mushrooming, according to her son, Tom Parker Bowles. The chef and author made the claim in a new interview with the Press and Journal while visiting Braemar.
Royal mushroom obsession
Mr Parker-Bowles said his mother loves mushrooming. He also shared his favourite eating royals, saying: "I don't want to make it too man-heavy, but my favourite of the eating royals was Edward the 7th, because he had an appetite; he could just eat and eat. Maybe Queen Victoria, too – but they probably argue, and I don't want to sit in the middle of that."
He joked about Queen Victoria dining in the wilds: "I always laugh at the thought of Victoria sitting dining near a bothy somewhere in the wilds when four footmen from Balmoral had to lug it all up there."
Family foraging tradition
He added: "She'd probably like the chanterelle mushrooms up there. Just like my mother. They're both very serious about their mushrooming."
The Queen shares this passion with her husband, the King, who is a big fan of foraging. In the book Cooking and the Crown: Royal Recipes from Queen Victoria to King Charles III, the Queen's son shared how both Queen Camilla and the King enjoy foraging for mushrooms and can become "deeply competitive about their hauls".
He also said wild mushrooms are "somewhat of an obsession" for both the monarch and his mother, with Charles famously taking part in his hobby on the same day his mother Queen Elizabeth passed away in 2022.
