Camilla Parker Bowles may be known for her love of books and her love of art, but in a recent interview with YOU magazine, the Duchess of Cornwall discussed her lifelong love of food (and the hiccups she encountered when she first began cooking herself).
Bowles was interviewed by her son, Tom, who writes as a restaurant critic for YOU. The duchess kicked off the interview by saying, “I grew up in a very happy home, with good food at its heart. I still just about remember rationing, but we grew everything from tomatoes and melons to peas, beans, carrots and new potatoes. One of my earliest memories is podding those peas and beans with my mother, an accomplished cook.”
In the full article, which can be read here, Bowles details the foods that characterized her youth, whether it was steamed puddings at her first school, Dumbrells in Ditchling, East Sussex, or the brown bread ice cream her grandmother prepared. However, she also describes her own experiences with cooking. “I could fill a book with all my cooking disasters,” the duchess joked. “I’m not a natural baker, to say the least.”