The Queen’s head chef recognised in New Year’s honours list for services to the monarchy
The Queen’s head chef, Mark Flanagan, has been made a Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order (RVO) by Her Majesty.
The recognition comes ahead of the chef’s 20th year of working for the royal family next year. He succeeded Lionel Mann as Assistant to the Master of the Household and became the Royal Chef in 2002.
Flanagan oversaw the dishes served at the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s wedding reception in 2019, as well as those served at the wedding breakfast for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge in 2011.
During Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding reception, guests were served a selection of bowl food rather than partaking in a formal sit-down dinner so that the newlyweds could mingle with the crowd more easily.
The food included 10-hour slow roasted Windsor pork belly with apple compote and crackling, fricassee of free range chicken with morel mushrooms and young leeks, and pea and mint risotto with pea shoots, truffle oil and parmesan crisps.
At the time, Flanagan told reporters that there was “no experimentation… whatsoever” with the wedding menu, with all the food served being “tried and tested and predominantly classics”.
The chef’s menus often use locally-sourced seasonal ingredients. Ahead of Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding, Flanagan told The Mirror that his team “always concentrates on showing off the very best of British produce”.
He was also responsible for dishes served at state dinners held in honour of former US president Barack Obama in 2016 and the King and Queen of Spain in 2017.
The head chef of the royal household has worked for some of the world’s top chefs, including Michel and Albert Roux, and Raymond Blanc. In 2014, he published a cookbook titled “A Royal Cookbook: Seasonal Recipes from Buckingham Palace”.
Awards bestowed under the RVO are personally appointed by the Queen to people who have served the monarch or the royal family in a personal way.
The Duchess of Cornwall’s former private secretary, Amanda MacManus, also received recognition and has been made a Commander of the RVO.
Julian Payne, the former communications secretary to the Household of the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, will be made a Member of the RVO.
