Queen Elizabeth, 96, is the first British monarch to celebrate a Platinum Jubilee – marking 70 years on the throne – and celebrations took place over the first week of June. Ahead of the celebration, Darren McGrady, a former royal chef who spent 15 years as a chef at Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace, re-released his 2007 anecdotal cookbook Eating Royally: Recipes and Remembrances from a Palace Kitchen , which shares little-known details about the royals and their eating habits. McGrady joined the queen’s staff in 1982 before transferring to Princess Diana’s staff in 1993. He then remained at Kensington Palace until Diana died in August 1997. So what has he revealed about Queen Elizabeth and her food habits? The queen had scones with her tea daily – and gave them to her corgis According to McGrady’s cookbook, scones were part of Queen Elizabeth’s daily tea service during his time at the palace. The price of royalty: new details about Princess Charlene’s health scare revealed “They were served religiously each day, alternating between fruit scones and plain scones,” McGrady wrote. “While the queen insisted on them as part of her tea, I suspect she didn’t actually like scones. I say that because she never, ever ate them.” McGrady continued that the queen would feed them to her corgis. “Instead, at the end of her daily tea, the queen would take a scone and crumble it onto the floor for the corgis. It seems the dogs quite liked them,” he wrote. Chefs were not to cut sandwiches into rectangles or squares because they resembled coffins McGrady recalled asking a fellow chef why it was required to trim corners off tea sandwiches for the queen during his early days at Buckingham Palace. “I was told to never cut a square or a rectangle,” McGrady wrote in his cookbook. “It looked too much like a coffin and it meant you wished the queen ill. I was mindful to never make that mistake.” The head chef drew up daily menus for the queen McGrady wrote that the head chef “would develop a list of menu suggestions” each day for Queen Elizabeth to approve. “Each day he would write his suggestions down in a red leather-bound book with ‘Menu Royal’ embossed in gold on the cover,” McGrady wrote. “As soon as one book was filled, it was sent to the royal archives and a new book was sent to the kitchen as a replacement.” Is the British royal family still relevant – and can it survive? McGrady attempted to record Princess Diana’s daily menus when he moved to Kensington Palace, but she had no interest. “She thought it was a waste of money and asked, ‘Why would anyone in years to come want to know what I ate?’” McGrady said of Diana. A chocolate-lover, the queen gave it up each year for Lent According to McGrady, “The queen gives up chocolate for Lent, so banished are her favourite Bendicks Bittermints and Charbonnel et Walker chocolates.” “On Easter Sunday the chefs would go to great lengths to prepare all sorts of chocolate treats to make up for the forty-day abstinence,” McGrady wrote. “There were chocolate cakes plus milk chocolate, white chocolate and bittersweet chocolate eggs. 8 times British royals sent messages with their fashion choices McGrady added that the chocolate sweets were served at royal teatime for “several days” before being placed in the staff dining room. The queen was “particular” about eating fruits in season In a chapter set in Windsor Castle, McGrady wrote about the queen’s love for Royal Ascot, a prestigious five-day horse racing event, founded by Queen Anne in 1711. “Ascot kicked off the summer for palace chefs,” McGrady wrote. “Now we could use strawberries, cherries and all the wonderful summer fruits.” He continued: “The queen was quite particular about eating fruits in season. We could serve strawberries almost every day during the summer – but woe betide any chef who put them on the menu in January.” How Queen Elizabeth makes millions, from sparkling wine to dish soap McGrady knew when the queen wanted lunch at Sandringham because of her corgis Wood Farm is a secluded cottage on Sandringham Estate in Norfolk in the east of England and a favourite spot of the queen’s. “The dining room was right next to the kitchen, and we knew the queen was coming through for lunch because the door was always open and the dogs would be herded into the kitchen,” McGrady wrote. “I could feel as many as twelve in the royal dining room and six in the staff room, all the while navigating around the dogs, which were jumping for titbits,” he continued. “You couldn’t push the dogs away, for the queen would hear them yelp in the next room and know what was going on.” This article originally appeared on Insider Want more stories like this? Follow STYLE on Facebook , Instagram , YouTube and Twitter .