Royals are well known for the lavish meals they love – from Henry VIII's whole roasted peacock to Elizabeth II's whisky-drizzled venison. But what about the spaces where these dishes were prepared and served? While castles and palaces boast glittering dining halls decked out with priceless treasures, royal kitchens are relatively basic affairs. We look at both with a peek at royal dining rooms and kitchens around the world, serving monarchs past and present.
Pull up a seat at the royal table and click or scroll on for an upstairs/downstairs look at palatial kitchens and dining rooms through history.
The daughter of the first King of Italy, Maria Pia was more than used to the good life when she became Queen of Portugal. After marrying King Luís I in 1862, she embraced court life with flair, hosting extravagant masquerade balls and sumptuous dinners, and often spending a small fortune on her dazzling ballgowns alone. Even after the death of her husband, Maria Pia continued to throw elaborate get-togethers, serving dishes like roast veal knuckle and scallop shells filled with salmon, mushrooms and truffles in Pena National Palace.
This intimate dining room is tucked away in the Pena National Palace in Sintra. The royal residence (where Queen Maria Pia of Portugal hosted her gatherings) was originally a monastery, and monks would have eaten in this refectory before it became the royal family's private dining room. The table could be extended to seat 24 diners, and their conversation must have bounced noisily off the glossy wall and ceiling tiles. However, it's the 16th-century vaulted ceiling that really steals the show. This porcelain dinner service, pictured, dates to the royal period.
Lavish 12-course meals were nothing out of the ordinary for the Portuguese royal family, who dined on Champagne sorbet and lobster mousse – likely without a second thought for who prepared such delicacies. Behind the scenes, this magnificent kitchen would have been alive with activity as cooks and their assistants bustled between three roaring ovens. Copper moulds, still present in the kitchen today, once shaped puddings into castles and pâtés into pigs and birds, ready to dazzle at the royal table.
Aside from having six wives, Henry VIII is probably best known for his gluttonous appetite. Royal menus from his time as king are an extraordinary read and include dishes that would seem outlandish or just plain odd to the modern gourmand. Chefs wishing to keep their heads firmly attached to their shoulders aimed to impress the famously mercurial monarch with meals from roasted peacocks with gilded beaks and showstopping plumage to swans wearing real crowns.
Henry VIII had the run of more than 60 homes, but Hampton Court Palace – which he confiscated from Cardinal Wolsey – was said to be his favourite. Some of the palace's 400 courtiers would have dined twice a day in the enormous great hall, while Henry would have usually eaten in his private chambers. He took his pick from an enormous buffet, featuring beef, veal, venison, pheasant, larks, rabbits and gulls, as well as sweet treats.
With citrus fruit from the Mediterranean, sugar from Cyprus and spices from China, Hampton Court's chefs had more ingredients than ever before to whip up meals – even porpoise was on the menu! In fact, nobles and even their servants expected 20 different meat dishes daily – anything less was considered an insult. Around 200 cooks and staff produced more than 800 meals a day in these kitchens. The biggest in Tudor England, they were described by one visitor as 'veritable hells' for their intense heat and relentless pace.
Queen Elizabeth II was not a particularly adventurous eater, according to one former royal chef quoted in Hello! magazine. However, she did enjoy British and French fare, including a venison fillet with a mushroom whisky sauce and halibut in a Mornay sauce. While she 'ate to live' and stuck to the same dishes week in, week out, the late queen had her pick of enchanting rooms to dine in.
While Buckingham Palace was the monarch's official residence, Windsor Castle in Berkshire was her beloved home and a retreat from royal life. Here, the state dining room is decorated for Christmas and set with the 'grand service'. Commissioned by George IV in 1806, it comprises 4,000 separate pieces. The room was seriously damaged when Windsor was ravaged by a fire in 1992 but, while the Gothic-style plasterwork was ruined, most of the furniture survived. The castle was restored over the following five years.
Built more than 750 years ago during the reign of Edward III, the Windsor kitchens are full of history, including soaring ceilings, 14th-century fireplaces and jelly moulds bearing the stamp of Queen Victoria. However, as part of a working royal residence, the kitchens are also full of mod cons. In a nod to tradition, the royal chef writes all menus in French before they're tweaked and signed off by the monarch. This photo was taken in May 2018, as chefs prepared for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding banquet.
King James IV was a popular ruler, known for unifying Scotland, supporting the arts and for his love of entertaining – and rich food. Copies of the monarch's household books list purchased ingredients including ox, boar, lamb, kid goat, rabbits, geese, quail, butter, cheese and even a crane (the bird, not the mechanism). For a Christmas feast thrown for a French ambassador in 1511, James ordered in multiple geese, capons, roosters, lamb and mutton, as well as 1,500 sheep's feet and 508 cows' feet for making jelly.
Stirling Castle was built around the 12th century, although there's been some sort of fortress on the site since prehistoric times. James IV added this impressive Great Hall in 1503 to host lavish banquets for the European alchemists, scholars and entertainers he gathered around him. Naturally, delicious food lay at the heart of these feasts and was key to delicate court diplomacy.
When the great hall was built, several new kitchens were constructed nearby to cater the large events thrown in the grand entertaining space. They would have been staffed by up to 60 people, mostly men, including cooks, bakers, larder keepers, cellar masters, pastry chefs, assistants and a linen laundress. The kitchens were filled in to create a base for a defensive battery in the 17th century. They were excavated and restored in 1921, and are now open to the public.
Queen Marie of Hanover was gifted Marienburg Castle by her husband King George V for her birthday in 1857. Built in a romantic neo-Gothic style, it became her cherished summer retreat, which she called her El Dorado, after the mythical city of gold. Though full of charming architectural flourishes, the castle was never used for courtly entertaining. Hanover’s annexation by Prussia, in 1866, meant Marie and George went into exile before the castle's completion. However, its interior is certainly impressive.
With its vaulted ceilings and arched windows, Marienburg's dining room evokes a medieval great hall, complete with a long banqueting table and heavy, high-backed chairs. Tapestries, carved stone and stained-glass windows all reinforce the room's romantic, fairytale feel. Here, the queen could step back in time and escape turbulent times, rather than impress and influence political figures.
Despite their beauty, the castle kitchens were only really used when Marie and her children moved in briefly before leaving to join King George in exile. Despite being built to support a small royal household on summer retreat, the kitchens still had large cast-iron ranges, an early hot water tank and servants' quarters. We can't speak for Marie's staff, but we'd love to cook in this fairytale kitchen.
Since inheriting the throne in 2022, King Charles III has hosted his fair share of royal events at Buckingham Palace, his official residence. During Queen Elizabeth II's reign, she hosted more than 150 state visits, each one including a lavish state banquet, which averages about two a year. Charles hosted his first just two months after becoming king. Although he mainly sticks to a plant-based diet, the king favours local, in-season foods, including eggs, lamb, pheasant and foraged mushrooms.
Buckingham Palace's banqueting hall seats up to 170 guests, with King Charles and Queen Camilla sitting at the top table with their guest of honour and other members of the royal family. The extraordinary tables are decorated with more than 100 candles in silver-gilt holders, along with arrangements of seasonal fruit and flowers. Dishes are served on the Grand Service, a silver-gilt dinner set that cost £60,000 when it was made back in 1806 – that's about £4.7 million ($6.4m) today.
The 2014 Singapore banquet is a perfect example of a state banquet menu and included fillets of Dover sole filled with salmon mousse, poached pheasant, a chocolate and praline ice cream bombe and a plate of seasonal fruit, as well as several wines. Although the palace was built in the 17th century, these modern kitchens are equipped to feed 800 people daily, from the royal family and their guests to ladies-in-waiting, private secretaries, valets, dressers, police officers and gardeners.
King Louis XVI and Queen Marie-Antoinette are famous for their extravagant lifestyle, particularly the lavish parties they hosted at Versailles. They delighted in throwing opulent balls, masked soirées and theatrical performances that showcased their wealth and style. However, their love of all things luxurious eventually became a symbol of royal excess and stoked resentment among the struggling public. The indulgence of these tone-deaf monarchs eventually led to their downfall, and they were executed in 1793.
While Versailles has many grand entertaining spaces, the porcelain dining room is tucked away in the king's private apartments. Louis and Marie-Antoinette used the room to host intimate dinners of around 40 guests, who sat around an extendable table. If there were too many guests, the men ate next door from a buffet laid out on a billiards table. Each Christmas, the king would display the latest pieces of Sèvres porcelain he had collected, and which gave the room its name.
Several thousand nobles and servants lived at Versailles at any one time, requiring vast kitchens to meet the court’s needs. While photos of the main palace kitchens are scarce, the kitchens at the Petit Trianon – Marie-Antoinette's bijou bolthole in the Versailles gardens – give us a clue to how they may have looked. This elegant warming room was where food was stored before being served. Marie-Antoinette closed the room due to the smell of food drifting into her apartments.
Carlos III of Spain often dined alone in front of an audience as a symbol of royal authority and transparency. Although lavish by our modern standards, the meals were noticeably more solemn than the opulent affairs enjoyed in other European courts. While Carlos may not have embraced entertaining to the degree his French neighbours did, he used food to reflect his modern vision of monarchy, soften the strict court rituals he'd inherited and make royal dining more public.
This fabulous gala dining room was designed by Italian architect Francesco Sabatini, who was commissioned by Carlos III to renovate and expand the palace's interiors. Decorated in neoclassical style with ceiling frescoes showing classical myths, the room is softly lit by crystal and bronze chandeliers. Seating up to 140 guests, it's not far behind the Buckingham Palace banquet hall when it comes to the number of seats it can accommodate.
Carlos' time ruling Naples and Sicily influenced the Spanish, introducing Italian flavours to the court in dishes whipped up in these kitchens. The soaring vaulted ceilings and magnificent stone arches dominate the enormous space, which contains a large iron stove, plate heater, wooden ice boxes, stone sinks and large prep tables. Paella pans, copper moulds and piping tools hint that traditional paellas, elaborate pastries and chocolate creations were served in the palace.
Franz Joseph was known for his disciplined, austere lifestyle, which may have contributed to his long life and reign of almost 68 years. Despite the grandeur of his court, he kept a strict daily routine, preferred plain meals and often dined alone. In contrast, Empress Elisabeth (Sisi) found this rigid court life suffocating and reportedly suffered from disordered eating.
Every Sunday, all royal family present in Vienna were required to attend a dinner here in the dining room of the imperial apartments. Most other gatherings hosted in the room were held for political purposes, rather than for the entertainment and amusement of the monarch. Court dinners could stretch to 13 courses, starting with bouillon, then oysters, salad, fish and meat before rounding up with dessert and cheese. The dishes were served punctually by one servant per two guests.
In contrast, when dining alone, Franz Joseph favoured beef boiled in water with simple vegetables. When holidaying in the Austrian spa town of Bad Ischl, it's said he ate only fermented milk and rye bread. Sisi, on the other hand, loved sorbet mixed with violets, sugar and Champagne. Days in this kitchen began early, as the king took his breakfast at 5am. The chefs then spent the rest of the day preparing food for the royals, as well as the 2,000 court employees.
Loved this? Read our round-up of the most amazing royal banquets through history