The simple joy of cooking outside

There is no finer dining hall than the great outdoors, and with careful and planning you can create a feast fit for a king preparation

-  TOM GODBER-FORD MOORE

THERE is a rather beautiful moment in the famous 1969 fly-on-thewall documentary Royal Family, a moment that many Field readers will be familiar with. It is of a simple – and decidedly not grand – family barbecue on the banks of a Scottish river, presumably the Dee. A young Prince Charles whisks the salad dressing and the Duke of Edinburgh turns slabs of steak and sausages on the charcoal grill as Princess Anne plays sous chef. The Queen prepares the salad while an unruly little Prince Edward clambers over the Land Rover and demands to know what the spoons are for.

It is a rare insight into the equally rare downtime the Royal Family must be able to enjoy together, but what a fine way they choose to do it. The annual family barbecue at Balmoral has become a private Royal tradition, and for many decades saw Prince Philip, tongs in hand, at the helm. Indeed in the touching family interviews after the Duke’s death, many of the younger generations mentioned their grandpapa’s wood-fired culinary wizardry, with the Duke of Sussex dubbing him “a master”, the Duke of Cambridge “a dab hand” and HM The King remarking that his late father “adored barbecuing and [he] turned that into an interesting art form”.