He was once the Royal Chef par excellence – who prepared Prince Charles’ meals every day. But then he left the Royal Employ, and spilled the proverbial beans in a series titled “Secrets of the Royal Kitchen.” He was suddenly famous, but the attention was too much for him. Equally suddenly he disappeared. Now chef.co.uk needs to talk to him urgently – please ring 07971 543703 if you know his whereabouts.

The cook – one of 20 chefs responsible for the Queen’s diet – soon learnt that cooking for the monarch included the royal pets.

“Of course I cooked for the corgis,” said Graham in an interview to promote his TV series in December 2002.

“They had their food sent up to them once a day.” The well-fed dogs would have a variety of dishes, usually consisting of chopped up boiled lamb’s liver or boiled rabbit with rice and cabbage. But the corgis were a special case. The working dogs – like the gundogs at Balmoral or Sandringham – had to make do with tripe.

Despite cooking for some four legged animals, most of Graham’s time as a royal chef was spent cooking for more impressive patrons. He spent two years (1980-82) working for the Queen and Prince Philip at Buckingham Palace and then another four and a half as personal chef to Prince Charles and Princess Diana. Now he’s an expert on royal taste – from knowing that garlic should not be served to the Queen, that Princess Diana drank instant, not filtered, coffee and that Prince Charles liked six different types of honey served with his breakfast.

He spoke about his experiences on Secrets of the Royal Kitchen, which aired in December 2002. Graham, originally from Wakefield in Yorkshire, came to Buckingham Palace from London’s Connaught Hotel.

“The most surprising thing to me was how spotless the kitchens were. Normally, kitchens are really hectic but, at the Palace, they were neat, tidy and well-organised, however busy we were.” A typical day at the Palace would begin at 6:30 with a cooked breakfast fit for a Queen (and her husband). Bacon, sausages, kedgeree or kippers would be joined by some cooked eggs (a different type each day) and were sent upstairs at around 8am. Lunch was at 1:15pm, high tea at 5pm and dinner at 8:15pm. “Everything had to be well-presented and elegant,” said Graham.

“But they weren’t too mad about decoration, so you might just serve flaked salmon on a plate with mayonnaise. Nothing was elaborate.”

Garlic was frowned upon – “it can be a bit offensive,” explained Graham – but, other than that, Graham says the monarch had no faddy tastes. She did, however, like her own royal version of fish and chips, called from her father. This was small pieces of haddock dipped in flour, egg and breadcrumbs and pan-fried. The fish was served with what Graham calls “minute” Haddock St Germaine, a taste she picked up chips and accompanied by Biarnaise sauce.

High tea – sandwiches and small cakes, “just right for nibbling” would be served at 5. There were always two different types of sandwiches (for example, smoked salmon, watercress and cucumber, foie gras or even jam) and two choices of tea cake such as banana bread or small eclairs. The sandwiches had to have their corners cutoff, explains Graham because, traditionally, if something with a point was served to a monarch, it was seen to be a threat.

Graham was one of the cooks who helped prepare Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s wedding breakfast (actually a lunch served when the newly weds and entourage returned to Buckingham Palace). Then when the couple returned from their honeymoon, they asked Graham if he would become one of their two personal chefs. The Prince and Princess of Wales had quite different tastes from the older royals. For one thing, they both eschewed a cooked breakfast for a healthier alternative.

“The Prince would have a glass of freshly squeezed orange or apple juice and a small bowl of fresh fruit salad. Then he would have muesli with six different types of dried fruit, apricots, peaches, figs, plums, apples and pears, served with milk from the Royal Dairy at Windsor. He would then have granary toast with six different types of honey. He would cut his toast up and try a little bit of honey on each.”

Princess Diana would also have cereal, usually muesli or bran flakes, and sprinkle wheatgerm on top. She would then have toast with dark marmalade and a fruit yoghurt.

“They really liked healthy food. Princess Diana was a big fan of jacket potatoes and they both liked loads of vegetables and fruit. This was all before organic produce became popular, so everyone thought Prince Charles was a bit mad growing his own at Highgrove. I think he was quite clever and ahead of his time.”

Charles and Diana usually had a light lunch – such as a lobster quiche – and did not usually have high tea. This was unless the pair were at Highgrove and the Prince had been hunting or playing polo. In that case he would have a soft boiled egg with vegemite (not Marmite, Graham points out) soldiers. Graham describes his time working for the royals as excellent fun and says he has a special soft spot for Prince Charles because he always treated him as an equal.

“I enjoyed working for them all,” he said. “But the Prince and Princess were special because you had personal contact and would chat to them every day.”I remember working on my own at Kensington Palace one day preparing canapis for a reception. I was decorating the canapis with little bits of dill which came from Highgrove and started doing an impersonation of the Prince and how much he loved his Highgrove produce. I didn’t realise that the Princess was standing behind me laughing. She thought it was very funny.”

Graham even remembered cooking for Camilla but is convinced that Princess Diana was there at the time.

Graham left the Prince and Princess of Wales in 1985. “I was young and ambitious,” he explained. “And keen to get my own Michelin star.” He managed that after becoming the chef at upmarket Inverlochy Castle, then worked abroad for a few years, on the Royal Scotsman train and set up his own restaurant in Yorkshire. Unfortunately, that has recently closed down but Graham, who now lives in Ripon, is keen to have his own place again. “I still love cooking, although my favourite meal is my mum’s Sunday lunch with four different kinds of veg.”

He said he loved his time with the royals but always insisted that he never received any gifts. “We did all the work but the butlers seem to have got all the gifts,” he admitted, with a twinkle in his eye.