Until now Prince William’s only culinary boast has been that he makes a mean shepherd’s pie. After 40 minutes in a Canadian cookery school however, it was herb and cranberry-crusted lamb and croustillant a l’effiloche de canard confit – and a distinctly competitive attitude to his lobster soufflé.
The Prince and the Duchess of Cambridge, dressed in personalised chef’s whites, were taking part in a cookery demonstration at Montreal’s top chef school, the Institut de tourisme et d’hotellerie du Quebec. Although they were greeted by a noisy demonstration by Quebec separatists, the Prince did not let that distract from the main task in hand – proving that he was a better cook than his host, Quebec Premier Jean Charest.
Mr Charest produced the first soufflé of the lesson, which was brought forward for display with a flourish by the Duchess. Two minutes later the Prince brought his soufflé up, removed the Premier’s and said, “Much better! This one is mine.” It was, he said, ‘a soufflé-off’. And if that wasn’t painful enough, he turned to Mr Charest and rubbed it in with one of those Windsor puns that his father used to love, “If you could rise to the challenge that would be great.”
A despondent Mr Charest, who in fact has a reputation as an accomplished cook, took a sad look at his rejected soufflé and said, “Now I guess I will have to pack it up and bring it home.” For the Prince, the demonstration was an opportunity for some light-hearted clowning about, pretending to pinch the strawberries from a bowl and insisting on dipping a spoon into a vat of melted chocolate for a taste.
The Duchess, however, seemed to take it all much more seriously. Student Theresa Rindress, 23, who showed her how to make an amuse-bouche of foie gras on a toasted brioche with apple cider jelly, said, “I showed her how to hold the knife and position her hand so that she did not cut herself. She was fantastic. She was very competent with the knife.”
As ever, the old rule applied: whenever a royal tries something knew, tell them how brilliant they are. When William made goats cheese, baby cucumber and elderberry jam, teacher Jean-Louis Themistocle said, “This is the best cucumber I have ever seen!” It cannot have been all bad, however: afterwards the Duke and Duchess, accompanied by the Premier and his wife and two of the Prince’s senior aides, ate what they had prepared. There were not understood to have been any complaints.
