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The monarch enjoys consuming grouse, but because of UK’s recent heatwave, the number of birds on the estate has been dwindling and so, the shoots had to be cut back.
The Queen’s former chef, Darren McGrady said told Hello: “I was at Balmoral Castle last week and was talking to a friend who works on the estate.
“He was telling me that the hot weather had killed so many chicks the shoots had been cut back. Grouse season started on Monday.
“Sunday was officially the ‘glorious twelfth’ but you can’t shoot on a Sunday in Scotland.
“The first official grouse shoot is this Friday.”
Mr McGrady, who spent 11 years working for the Queen, said the grouse was one of the monarch’s favourite dishes.
He added: “The Queen loves grouse. It will be on the Balmoral menu for the next two months. Most of the time it was served as roast grouse with game chips, bread sauce and redcurrant jelly.”
The Queen has a preference for what she likes to eat, and has ruled out specific foods from the royal menu.
Her Majesty is not much of a foodie, according Mr McGrady, author of Eating Royally, but said that the Queen loves all types of game.
He added: “For a main course, any game, she loved game.
“Things like Gaelic steak, fillet steak with a mushroom whisky sauce, especially if we did it with venison fillet instead. For first course, things like Gleneagles pâté which was smoked salmon, trout and mackerel.
“She loved using ingredients off the estate and so if we had salmon from Balmoral from the River Dee, she’d have that, it was one of her favourites.”
Mr McGrady also revealed a time he thought Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, was one of the palace gardeners, because he was dressed in a jumper.
He said: “The first few weeks I was working at Buckingham Palace we never saw anyone at all, but when we went to Balmoral they said a member of the royal family could come down to the kitchen at any time.”
“I saw Prince Philip come down to the kitchen and he was in a tatty old jumper with the elbows hanging out. I thought he was one of the gardeners!
“The gardeners would take fruit up to the kitchen because at Balmoral they have their own fruit and vegetable garden.
“No, that’s the Duke.’ I thought, ‘Oh my gosh!’ I’d only ever seen him in a suit.”
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