King Charles Has the Most Surprisingly Frugal Mealtime Rule

Queen Camilla's son gave a peek into dinner with the royals.

It's easy to imagine that King Charles's life is full of luxury and excess, but even with rumors of him being known as the "pampered prince" before he ascended to the throne, things have apparently changed behind the golden gates of Buckingham Palace. According to Queen Camilla's son, food critic and author Tom Parker-Bowles, the monarch has a strict rule when it comes to mealtime—and it's not about caviar or Champagne. Apparently, Charles won't stand for wasting food and requests that any leftovers get served the next day or used again in another meal.

"There is no waste, everything is recycled, everything is used from the table," Parker-Bowles told the Mirror. "If anything is leftover from the dinner, that will be made into something else or appear the next day. Nothing's allowed to be thrown out."

The Mirror notes that last year, Charles established The Coronation Food Project, which works to lift people out of "food insecurity" and reduce food waste.

"It's not the king just paying lip service, he practices what he preaches," Parker-Bowles shared, before noting that the king has a fascination with food at every stage, from farm to table. "He really is a food hero. To talk to him about the strange varieties of plums or pears or anything else is endlessly fascinating."

Parker-Bowles also gave some insight into his mother and stepfather's personal connection to the food they eat, saying that they're "deeply competitive" when foraging for mushrooms when they're at Balmoral.

"They're both very keen mycologists, and both know their mushrooms very, very well. This time of year, depending on rain, there's ceps and chanterelles," he said. "I go with my mother and there's a lot of fantastic mushrooming in Scotland. It's a shared pleasure."

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