Coronation chicken, anyone? To celebrate the Queen’s 90th birthday, this restaurant is dishing up vintage food from the 50s
If there is one food that comes to mind when we think of Queen Elizabeth, it's that bright yellow street party stalwart, Coronation Chicken.
To celebrate her 90th birthday, one upscale restaurant in Piccadilly is serving a bespoke menu inspired by the food Her Maj dined on 60 years ago, but it's a far cry from what Mayfair's Michelin-starred haunts offer now.
Quaglino's joins retailers Unilever, Signet and Kwik Fit in offering unconventional ways to celebrate Liz's birthday. Created by executive chef Mickael Weiss, the Royal Night Out menu is an honourable selection inspired by the Queen, after her visit 60 years ago. Although, because it's a bit posher than your average, don't expect luminous sandwich fillings or tinned fruits.
There's often speculation on the royals' favourite foods, but what does a meal fit for a 1950s Queen look like?
Obviously, it wouldn't be a royal celebration without a dollop of coronation chicken, so to start we have a terrine inspired by the vintage yellow dish served with pickled carrots, toasted almonds and curried herbs.
The Capitalist wonders if Queen Elizabeth dined at Quaglino's a lot during the 1970s? The main course is a beef stroganoff and parpadelle pasta – a classic dish from the decade.
We know now that the Queen is actually more fond of Europe than Buckingham palace have let on, but Quaglino's dessert makes her Maj appear an even bigger europhile. The restaurant offers a "fromage blanc charlotte"; a colourful dish usually made from cream cheese, lady fingers and tinned fruits – but the Quaglino's version of which poshes it up, with "rhubarb, a handmade sorbet and fromage blanc".
A four course meal of coronation chicken, beef stroganoff and tinned fruits will set diners in the West End back £40 per head. That may look pricey, but you'd be hard pressed to find dishes like these anywhere else but the cafeterias of London's private schools nowadays. With school fees in the capital averaging out at around £14,000 per annum, Quaglino's is the cheapest way to take a trip down memory lane.
Just last month she was spotted at Bellamy's in Mayfair, widely regarded as her most visited restaurant, celebrating another birthday; the 90th of one of her oldest friends, Lady Penn a former lady-in-waiting to the Queen Mother.
With fare like foie gras, caviar and steak tartare on offer at Bellamy's, we're not surprised that the Queen gave up the coronation chicken at Quaglino's.