Posh item of cutlery that the Queen banned from her table as it is ‘too common’

Her Majesty The Queen is famously very easy to please when it comes to food as she prefers a simple, British meals over anything exuberant or eccentric. While this is the case, there are still a number of historic rules that the monarch and the Royal Household abide by.

If you were lucky enough to be invited to one of The Queen’s lavish banquets or dinners, you would likely be blown away by the eccentricity of the surroundings. The table is so ornamental, in fact, that it was set up five days before the actual event.

But there is one item noticeably missing from the Queen’s table and we are stunned as we assumed it was the height of formality. The unique rule dates back to the reign of The Queen’s great-grandfather, King Edward VII.

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When it comes to using the cutlery at a formal dinner party, many of us know to start from the outside and work our way in. But at The Queen’s table, there will be item conspicuously missing, thanks to the monarch’s great-grandfather, King Edward VII’s belief that the item was “very common”.

The shocking revelation was made by Thomas Blaikie in his book ‘What A Thing To Say To The Queen’. He wrote: “There have been no fish knives in royal palaces since Edward VII denounced them as ‘very common’.” This surprising truth has shocked us as we always thought that using a fish knife was the absolute height of sophistication.

But removing an item of cutlery because of its “common” associations isn’t the only thing banned from royal circles. The Queen and her family also have several words they do not use and instead replace them with far posher counterparts. So you will never catch the Queen on her way to the ‘toilet’, she would be going to the ‘loo’ or ‘lavatory’. Other words banned from royal circles include ‘lounge’, ‘pregnant’, ‘portion’, ‘function’ and ‘pardon’.

While you’ll never find a fish knife on Her Majesty’s table, she certainly enjoys a wide range of fish dishes. The Queen’s former servant, Charles Oliver, revealed one of the best anecdotes about the monarch’s fondness in his book ‘Dinner at Buckingham Palace’.

An extract from the book revealed that the Queen “Has been partial to kippers since the war years” and that when she and Princess Margaret were exploring around different areas of Windsor Castle, they came across a “Compelling aroma”.

Oliver wrote: “Fascinated, they traced the smell to its source and found themselves outside the private kitchen of Mrs Alice Bruce, then housekeeper at the castle.”

Oliver continued: “They politely knocked on the door and were welcomed into the old-fashion kitchen with its great iron oven range – and its frying kippers. Mrs Bruce gave the princesses their first taste of kipper, and showed them how to cook the fish as well.”

The author goes on: “Kippers, in a number of uncomplicated variations, have remained a favourite with the Queen ever since – for breakfast, as a savoury or a late-night supper. The Queen is also fond of smoked haddock as a breakfast dish.”

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