Queen meets woman who helped perfect coronation chicken at Sandringham reception to celebrate Platinum Jubilee

Her Majesty on ‘sparkling’ form as she attends celebratory event on eve of her Platinum Jubilee
Matt Watts5 February 2022

The Queen met a woman who helped perfect coronation chicken, the dish forever associated with the start of her reign, as she began celebrations of her 70 years on the throne.

On the eve of the monarch reaching her Platinum Jubilee milestone, she spoke with Angela Wood who as a 19-year-old spent days cooking versions of the dish first known as Poulet Reine Elizabeth for its creators as they worked on the coronation menu.

Ms Wood was tasked by royal florist and cookery doyenne Constance Spry and cordon bleu chef Rosemary Hume to help perfect their dish for the crowning of the Queen in June, 1953.

The Queen and Ms Wood chatted at a reception held in the ballroom of Sandringham House where members of the local community gathered to celebrate the Queen’s 70 years on the throne with a cake.

The Queen Hosts A Reception At Sandringham House On The Eve Of Accession Day
Getty Images

The Queen – who will be the first British monarch to celebrate a historic 70 years on the throne – wore an Angela Kelly wedgewood blue crepe with white brocade dress and beamed with delight during the event.

She was chatty and appeared in her element as spoke with guests.

Commenting on how the recipe for coronation chicken has likely developed over the years the Queen told Ms Wood: "It's probably changed because in those days we did some things quite differently."

The event was the largest in-person public engagement the Queen had attended since last October’s Windsor Castle evening reception for delegates who had attended the Government’s Global Investment Summit earlier that day.

A few days later concerns for the Queen’s health were raised after she pulled out of a trip to Northern Ireland and spent a night in hospital, she was ordered to rest by doctors who later advised her to carry out light duties.

Platinum Jubilee
PA

Her guests included members of her local Women’s Institute (WI), the Sandringham branch she supports as president, and Sandringham Estate pensioners.

Before the pandemic the Queen would visit her WI colleagues at West Newton village hall every year as part of her winter stay on her Sandringham estate in Norfolk.

For the ballroom event Shaun Mason, a junior sous chef, had created tiny bite size morsels of the coronation chicken, chicken with curry spices, apricot in a savoury tartlet, and he carried a tray of his creations into the ballroom and announced they were available to sample.

As the morsels were placed between the Queen and Mrs Wood to try, the room erupted with laughter when the Queen quipped “I’ll go away”, she turned to add: “You can tell me (what you think) when I come back.”

Her Majesty also cut an iced Victoria sponge cake decorated with the Jubilee emblem to begin her Platinum year.

Lady Dannatt, the Lord-Lieutenant of Norfolk, told the Queen the cake was turned upside for the benefit of the press photographs, and the monarch quipped to laughter: "I don't matter?"

When it came to cutting the large cake, the Queen, thinking aloud, said: "I'll put the knife in, see if it works."

She drove the knife in vertically and left it in place, adding "somebody else can finish it off".

The Queen was described as being on "sparkling" form by Yvonne Browne, vice-president and chairman of the Sandringham WI.

The Queen leaving Sandringham House (Joe Giddens/PA)
PA Wire

The 95-year-old head of state arrived at the event with a wooden walking stick she leaned on sagely as she leant forward to chat to the visitors who were seated around tables waiting for a tea to be served but stood up to chat to the Queen.

The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee will be celebrated across the country during an extended June Bank Holiday in honour of a monarch who has left an indelible mark on the life of the nation.

But February 6, the date of the Queen’s accession to the throne, is a poignant period for the Queen, as it is the day her father King George VI died in 1952.

She is already the nation’s longest reigning monarch, and the longest still-serving sovereign in the world.

During the reception the Queen also met representatives from West Norfolk Befriending, a charity which aims to reduce the social isolation experienced by the elderly by matching them with trained volunteer befrienders who visit on a regular basis.

The Queen (right) at a previous meeting of the Sandringham Women’s Institute (WI) meeting at West Newton Village Hall, Norfolk (Archive/PA)
PA Archive

And she spoke to members of Little Discoverers which provides early education for pre-school children with movement difficulties and delayed development.

Sandringham House has been the private home of four generations of British monarchs for more than 150 years.

It also holds a sad significance for the Queen, being where her much loved father King George VI died in his sleep, triggering the start of her now record-breaking reign.

The Duke of Edinburgh also spent much of his retirement on the royal estate, living at Wood Farm, a farmhouse in Wolferton nestled in the far reaches of country retreat, enjoying the sanctuary and privacy it offered.

The Queen's Platinum Jubilee is poignantly the first Jubilee she has marked without Philip, who died just 10 months ago at the age of 99.

She marked the lead up to the Platinum Jubilee by looking at memorabilia from the golden and platinum Jubilees.

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