The one dish Queen Camilla refused to make for Tom Parker Bowles and Laura Lopes when they were kids

Tom Parker Bowles has shared rare insights into his childhood and his mother Queen Camilla’s approach to home cooking.

Speaking on the latest episode of Table Manners with Jessie & Lennie Ware, where he appeared alongside Henry Jeffreys, the 50-year-old food writer reminisced about his favourite childhood meals, including his mother’s signature roast chicken. 

© Table Manners

However, there was one surprising mealtime favourite she would refuse to make – gravy. 

“I suppose it would be bang on about so much, but it is my mom’s roast chicken,” he shared. “She’d never make gravy, but she’d cut off that fatty bit – you know, the bit that hangs over – and put it on the top. 

“Then she’d pour all the juices over your chicken, and that was it. A baked potato, and that was it.”

© Dave Benett

 Tom also recalled another mealtime tradition in their household – Friday night fish and chips, paired with a trip to the video rental store. 

He added: “The fish and chip shop was in our local town, so we went to the video shop afterward. She (Queen Camilla) told them I wasn’t allowed to get eighteens, so I’d get Lethal Weapon, and the Delta Force… whatever it was. 

“It was just pre the video recordings act, so they weren’t rated. But she would know all this stuff. And then you get fish and chips and a video, and it’s just like, this is the life… and a coke!”

© Max Mumby/Indigo

Asked more on Camilla’s cooking skills, Tom replied: “Not so much anymore – She’s busy, but she was bringing up two children in the 70s, 80s, in Wiltshire. 

“It wasn’t that my dad would cook, she was a good cook, but she wasn’t a recipe follower. Get a chicken, put a lemon up his [explicit], you know, put butter all over it, put it in the oven. That’s dinner!” 

The comments come shortly after Tom revealed the Queen rarely cooks for the King. Asked what the monarch thought of her cooking, Tom said: “I don’t think she cooks for him, I’ll be honest. They have a team of very good chefs. 

“Actually, she does. He likes good – I don’t want to speak out of turn here – but scrambled eggs and smoked salmon… who doesn’t like scrambled eggs or roast chicken? 

“So it would be something that we’d eat, definitely, but I don’t think there’s a lot of ‘Honey, I’m home, what’s for dinner? I think it’s a bit more planned than that.” 

The King’s stepson was speaking at the Castle Hotel in Windsor at an event to promote his latest book, Cooking & The Crown.