A Former Chef Of Queen Elizabeth II And Princess Diana Now Owns A Food Cart
If you are a personal chef who served the British royal family, where do you go for life's next culinary adventure? It turns out that if you're Darren McGrady, you open a food cart in the Portland-Vancouver, Washington area.
Not only did McGrady spend 15 years working for Princess Diana and Queen Elizabeth, he also cooked for five U.S. presidents, including Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush. His career took him from training at the Savoy Hotel during the 1980s to writing two cookbooks, moving to Texas, and becoming a food consultant. D Magazine described his journey "from the palace to Dallas" with a new phase in his journey, opening a fish and chips food cart.
McGrady opened Winston British Fish and Chips in early March 2023, celebrating the milestone by offering a free supper to customers who brought their Corgis. The food truck is named after Winston the Corgi, who appears in the opening animation for McGrady's YouTube channel. It's this very channel that brought McGrady's vision to Washington. His business partner Timothy Johnson, who had dreams of opening a fish and chips food cart of his own, found McGrady's channel and reached out, according to Eater.
Fish and chips may seem like an unusual choice, but not when you consider the British tradition of "Fish Friday." McGrady said he frequently made fish and chips for both the royal family and their staff, and is sharing that love stateside.
A royal fish stop
Chef Darren McGrady gives fish and chips the royal treatment while using U.S. sourced ingredients. If you don't fancy fish and chips, Winston British Fish and Chips also offers wings, curry sauce, and a smoked fish chowder inspired by a recipe dating back to Queen Victoria. For his fish and chips, he uses Alaskan cod and Yukon Gold potatoes, and while widely disputed, he thinks cod is the best fish to use for fish and chips. He tops it off with traditional mushy peas. For the uninitiated, the mushy peas served with British fish and chips are a little different from sweet peas common in the U.S. Like wasabi peas, they are made from Marrowfat peas and are dried while still in the field.
On the surface, creating a food cart menu and a dinner for royalty may seem world's apart. McGrady explained to D Magazine that the Buckingham Palace kitchen is over a mile away from the palace dining areas. He compared the logistics as more similar to a hotel than your typical private residence. As a result, he learned to prepare food that travels well and meets exact standards, going so far as to developing a batter that stays crispy for 40 minutes, per Eater. It turns out that preparing haute cuisine for diners at the prestigious Savoy hotel, cooking for royalty, and serving fish and chips are really not that all that different.