The Gargantuan Appetite of Edward VII

King Edward VII appetite for food was on a gargantuan scale. In her book ‘Edward VII and His Circle’ from 1956 Virginia Cowles informs the reader:

‘Although King Edward ate a Continental breakfast when he was abroad, he always liked ‘an English Breakfast’ consisting of haddock, poached eggs, bacon, chicken and woodcock, before setting out on a day’s shooting or racing.

Luncheon and dinner, of course, were meals that stretched from ten to fifteen courses, and tea was an elaborate affair with every sort of scone and crumpet, tart and roll and cake. Besides this, snacks consisted of lobster salad and cold chicken were often served at eleven in the morning to appease the King’s hunger, and even after dinner a plate of sandwiches, and sometimes a quail or a cutlet, was sent to the Royal apartments.’