The royal calendar is set a year in advance and is quite detailed. This level of advance planning is only possible because there are certain activities that are repeated year after year by the Queen and the royal family. In broad strokes, a standard calendar looks like this:
Late December until early February: Christmas and the New Year at Sandringham Castle
February: State visits in late February. During the third week a state banquet for one hundred fifty people is held at Buckingham Palace.
March to mid-May: Windsor Castle. The Queen’s birthday is April 21 and is always celebrated at Windsor, as is the Easter holiday. The Royal Windsor Horse Show is held during the second week of May.
Late May to mid-June: Buckingham Palace. The Queen attends to affairs of state, including investitures and state visits. In May, the Chelsea flower show and the anniversary celebration of the Queen’s birthday are held. The Duke’s birthday is on the tenth of June.
Late June: Windsor Castle and a celebration of the Royal Ascot horse races. Leaving Windsor Castle, the Queen spends the last week of June in Edinburgh, Scotland, at Holyrood Palace. A garden party and a thistle lunch are always on the schedule.
July: Garden parties at Buckingham Palace
Early August: Aboard HMY Britannia for regatta racing and sailing among the Western Isles.
August until early October: Vacation at Balmoral Castle in the highlands of Scotland
November: Buckingham Palace and a large annual reception for the Diplomatic Corps with as many as fifteen hundred people in attendance
Early December: Buckingham Palace for state visits and banquets
As a chef, I tend to associate the royal residences with seasons and food. I think of Buckingham Palace as the workaday location during late fall and winter, as well as early summer. To me the palace conjures up images of hearty stews, refined banquets, private lunches and dinner parties, and large summer tea parties.
Sandringham means Christmas and English trifle, chocolate Yule log, pâtés, and terrines. Sandringham also has a wonderful fruit farm with nearly seventy acres of amazing apples—Laxtons Fortunes, Cox’s, and Bramleys—which make the best apple pies.
Windsor Castle is linked with the arrival of spring and early lettuces, peas, asparagus, and rhubarb ready to harvest.
Balmoral is forever associated with high summer holidays, ice cream, and berry picking. The gardens are full of raspberries, strawberries, gooseberries—red and green—and frais de bois, which are little woodland strawberries that only need a jug of heavy cream and a bowl of caster sugar to grace the royal tables.
Queen’s menu
Queen Mother’s menu
Duke of Edinburgh’s menu
Prince Charles’s menu
Prince Andrew’s menu
Princess Dianna’s menu
