Princess Di's personal chef shares recipes and recollections

When Princess Diana walked through the front door at Kensington Palace, Chef Darren McGrady instantly knew she was very unhappy.

She slammed the door, which was not at all like her, and stormed into the kitchen where he was making a meal for her and sons, Prince William and Prince Harry.

She burst into tears. Angry tears. "I hate those paparazzi!" she sputtered.

McGrady, Princess Diana's personal chef for four years -- from the time of her split-up with Prince Charles in 1993 until her death in 1997 -- was often privy to her thoughts and feelings that could pour out during a heated moment like this one as well as when she just wanted to talk and chatted at the kitchen table.

He shares his insights into the heart of the People's Princess in his new cookbook, "Eating Royally."

But don't expect a juicy, scandalous "tell-all" from the man or his book. His descriptions of Diana, and the rest of Britain's royal family, create a picture that's as warm and delicious as Diana's favorite bread-and-butter pudding.

During a phone interview to promote the book, he offers the back story of the events that day as an example of Diana's struggles with life in a

fishbowl.

"She had driven to a friend's home for a visit. When she came out of the house, big yellow plastic cones had been set in front and in back of her car. "She moved them aside and got into the car. While she was getting in, a man put the cones back in place.

"Diana got out again and moved the cones again. When she got into the car, he put the cones back in position.

"The same thing happened a third time. And then a fourth time. Finally, Diana got out of the car, yelled at him to leave her alone, and burst into tears. That was the moment he was waiting for.

"A photographer, the man captured a photo of Diana in total distress, and probably got enough from selling that one shot to pay for his retirement. After all, there were millions of pictures of the smiling, happy Diana. Ones of her crying, in tears and distressed, were much rarer and fetched much higher prices," McGrady concludes.

But don't think for a moment that McGrady is using this book to finance his own retirement. Now working as a private chef for a Dallas, Texas, family, he has donated all of his advance and all profits from the sales of "Eating Royally" to the Elizabeth Glazer Pediatric Aids Foundation. Why? Because it embraces children and AIDS, which were two of Diana's most important causes.

Done in McGrady's spare time, the book took four years to write. But it is a treasure that mixes recollections with his recipes. It makes you laugh and it makes you cry, besides tempting you to cook from it.

Diana was real. "When she got home at night, the first thing she did was kick off her shoes and walk around barefoot," says McGrady.

He adds, "She never minded being photographed when she was raising funds for charity. She loved pictures then. There was a little vanity, too. She knew she was almost like a model and that she looked the best she had ever looked," McGrady adds.

Her sense of humor wasn't to be missed. Picture Princess Diana after she insists that Chef Darren prepare fresh beet juice for her, drinks it down without diluting it and then jokingly accuses him of trying to poison her when her cheeks literally turn beet-red for several hours.

"When Diana said, 'Darren, I've heard fresh juice is good for you. Please get a juicer,' I knew she wanted it right away. Not tomorrow or the next day. I was in a cab to Harrods within the hour. And the beet juice was pouring out of the juicer shortly after I got it into the kitchen," he recalls.

Although Diana liked trying new foods, she simply wasn't a cook. "When I prepared foods for her to reheat for herself over the weekends, instructions had to be very simple. Just microwaving in a single stage and at one power level. She couldn't handle preparations that went on for two steps or more," says the chef.

As proof, he writes of the time she tried to cook pasta for a visiting girlfriend. When the water boiled over, it extinguished the stove's pilot light. Diana didn't think anymore of it until she smelled gas the next morning and summoned help from the local fire brigade. "When I came back to work on Monday, the princess gleefully informed me that she had 12 hunky men in her house while I was gone."

He talks about rough times, too, like Diana alone in Kensington Palace on Christmas Eve. "She believed the boys belonged at Sandringham to celebrate the holiday with their father and the rest of the royal family. She also wanted her staff to be with their families, so I loaded up the refrigerator with goodies for her and then headed out of the door."

His poignant memories of learning of Diana's death while still eating his breakfast on Aug. 31, 1997, rekindle that same sadness all of us experienced a decade ago. But he keeps her candle burning as he recalls her spirit and style and how she inspired him to work for charities.

"The morning after some her gowns were auctioned off during a charity auction at Christy's in New York, she burst into the kitchen and said, 'Darren, you would not believe how many thousands we've made for charity, just by selling some of my old dresses.'

"I think her reaction to what I'm doing would be similar. Something like, 'Darren, tell me again how many thousands you think you can make for charity by selling your old recipes for the foods I really like.' "

But what would Queen Elizabeth say, since she and the rest of Britain's Royal Family also figure prominently in his stories and recipes? After all, he spent 11 years cooking for the Queen before moving to the Kensington Palace kitchen.

"I have no way to know if she'll even see the book," he says of the Queen, but thinks she probably wouldn't mind his telling people about queenly quirks, including her dislike of sandwiches cut into basic rectangles, ordering scones but never eating them, and being unable to resist chocolate.

"Rectangular sandwiches are shaped too much like a coffins.

"She always treats her Corgis to a scone she crumbles and drops on the floor for them after she finishes her tea.

"Give her a choice of desserts, and she'll always pick the chocolate one," he says. (He shares the recipes for her two favorite heavy-duty chocolate birthday cakes in the book.)

But writing a book about his years in service wasn't always in the chef's plans.

"People still are fascinated and inspired by Diana and the good work she did, from opening up about her bulimia and working to eradicate land mines to hugging an AIDS patient at a time when the disease still was misunderstood.

"When people found out I worked for her, they just kept asking questions. Their interest made me realize I needed to do the book," he says.

But what do people ask this palace insider?

"What her favorite foods were, whether she really was as nice as she seemed and whether I have Prince William's phone number," McGrady answers.

He doesn't have Prince William's phone number, or isn't telling if he does.

Diana's food choices often were simple, including stuffed eggplant and peppers, steamed trout, roasted vegetables and chicken. Besides the amaretto-flavored bread pudding she loved, she often opted for summer pudding if she was having lunch guests.

In stark contrast to Balmoral, where the royals went "stalking" and game often was on the table, the only "game" Diana permitted at Kensington Palace was the boys' PlayStation.

McGrady writes that she once asked him, while he was still working for Queen Elizabeth in the kitchen at Balmoral Castle, "Why does everyone in this family like killing things?" She hated the idea, he says.

She liked baked beans on whole wheat toast for breakfast because there was lots of protein and no fat -- just carbs she could work off at the gym. Baked potatoes often were on her plate but they were plain or sprinkled lightly with a little vinaigrette dressing. She snacked on yogurt and grain bars and fresh fruit. Fresh lichees were a favorite. "If I left a bowl of those out for her, she'd leave it looking like a bomb went off," says McGrady.

There was a great deal of contrast between the formal dinners and service at Buckingham Palace and mealtime at Kensington where Princess Diana and the boys sometimes even ate from snack tables while watching television.

Painting another picture of Kensington's more casual atmosphere, McGrady writes, "If Diana and the boys were visiting Granny and wanted ice cream, the Queen would call her page, who in turn would call the head chef. The head chef would call the pastry kitchen and the pastry chef would in turn call the silver pantry for some silver dishes to present it on. The ice cream would be formed into decorative quenelle shapes and placed in a silver dessert dish. Then it was off to the linen room to get the proper napkin. Eventually, a footman would arrive to take the ice cream up to the royal dining room some 15 minutes later."

At Kensington, the boys just walked into the kitchen and asked for ice cream. During one of those sessions, Prince William, the future king, shared his idea of a dream job with McGrady. Between frosty spoonfuls, he said, "When I grow up, I'm going to be a motorcycle policeman."

But what of Diana's public image? Did it match the "real" Diana? The chef's short answer: "Yes."

He shares warm memories of a woman who chose to have her lunch from a tray on the kitchen table whenever she wasn't entertaining guests. And she chatted about everything from soap operas to juicy tidbits she'd just heard from Fergie.

Besides the public compassion she showed for people who needed her help all over the world, she treasured her staff after they had earned her trust.

When she discovered McGrady was courting, she made sure he had longer weekends off by taking dinner "out" on Friday evenings. One day, she also gave him a huge and beautiful bouquet for Wendy, who is now his wife.

"Just tell Wendy they're from you, because we girls love flowers," she said. But McGrady answered, "No, I'll score more points with her if I tell Wendy they're from you."

Along with her caring ways, Princess Diana packed a mischievous sense of humor. Diana once told a Saudi prince that she liked mangoes after listening to him go on endlessly about the wonderful mangoes and other fresh fruit grown in his country. A week later, Diana struggled to carry a huge box of mangoes into the kitchen. She remarked: "Do you believe this, Darren? The man sent me a whole crate of mangoes because I mentioned that I liked them. Next time, I need to mention how much I like diamonds."

Once, she received an invitation for the boys to visit the set of "Mission Impossible" and meet Tom Cruise. "Darren, do you think William and Harry would like to meet Tom Cruise?" she asked.

McGrady's answer, "I don't know about the boys, but I think their mother might."

She laughed and headed off with the boys. When she returned, she picked up a banana and, between bites, said of Cruise, "There's another one off my list. He's too short."

"Diana really was tall and the royal family, including the Queen and Prince Charles, are short. The elevation of Diana's shoes became a way to tell how things were going between Princess Diana and Prince Charles. Flats? Good times. Super-high heels? Real trouble, according to the chef.

She was proud of Pr ince William's good looks and sometimes teased him. "One day when she was in the kitchen and William walked in she said, 'Look at him, Darren. Isn't he drop-dead gorgeous?' "

Prince William protested, "Oh, Mommy, stop it." But Diana added, "And look at his height. That's from my side of the family."

But what were Diana's real feelings about the royal family?

"The Camilla thing really weighed her down, but there was nothing she could do about it. She never told me she was still in love with Prince Charles, but I believe she still had strong feelings for him. To the last, she always referred to him as 'my husband' and never as 'him' or 'the prince.' "

Her biggest gripes weren't with the Queen and the other royals but with the Queen's advisers who were always stifling her spontaneity, says McGrady.

"If Diana decided she wanted to visit a homeless shelter, she wanted to go the same day or the next day. She did not want to wait months until the shelter could be cleaned up and painted and local dignitaries and their wives ("the blue rinses," as Diana called them) could line up to greet her," he adds.

Recalling a time when a bomb went off in Manchester and injured children, he said, "Diana was on the phone to Buckingham Palace as soon as she heard the news. I heard her say, 'Please send me. I really want to go.' "

Princess Anne was sent instead. Later in the day, as she and McGrady watched the BBC coverage of Princess Anne's visit on the kitchen telly, Princess Diana said to McGrady, "I should have been there. Look at her. You can tell she's more interested in horses than children. She doesn't get down to talk to them on their level. She should at least take off those white gloves so the children can feel the warmth, flesh-to-flesh, that makes the human connection.' "

Although Diana was known worldwide, she always was amazed by the reception she received in the United States.

During her visits, McGrady says, "She'd call and talk about the crowds. The shouting. The cheering. She loved the friendliness of Americans, along with their lifestyle and the weather. And she'd tell me, 'We've really got to move here!' "

That enthusiasm helped McGrady decide to move to the States shortly after her death -- despite job offers from Dodi Al Fayed's father and high-ranking British politicians, as well as Prince Charles.

"Besides," McGrady says, "With that wicked sense of humor that she had, I could just hear Princess Diana's voice saying 'Darren, you're really not going to cook for THAT woman, are you?' "