The Queen is celebrating her Platinum Jubilee next month, and to celebrate, Fortnum & Mason has put together a Platinum Pudding competition. The television programme is airing tonight at 8pm and the winner will be announced by Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall and Dame Mary Berry. The contestants had to put together their own pudding creation that the Queen will enjoy, in honour of the Platinum Jubilee.
A judge from the competition, Matt Adlard, spoke exclusively to Express.co.uk about the show.
He spoke about studying and researching what the Queen enjoys in a dessert in preparation for the competition.
Matt said: “I hadn’t really realised that the Queen had some quite specific tastes.
“She really enjoys jellies in different flavours, so that was really interesting to learn.
READ MORE: Queen’s Platinum Jubilee pudding competition – final 5 desserts
“Seeing how people who entered the competition were interpreting and researching the Queen’s favourite puddings because they wanted to get into the final was really interesting.
“It was great to see how people take different ideas in the research that they’ve done.”
With the Queen’s interesting taste in food, Matt expanded on whether he was surprised at anything he learned.
Matt continued: “There wasn’t anything mind-blowing where I was like ‘oh wow!’
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“She’s very traditional with the flavours she likes and I’m quite a traditional baker in terms of really enjoying classic flavours.
“So for me, I was really aligned with the Queen’s, and I was really comfortable with everything she loved.” He added: “The Queen has simple, refined tastes.”
Out of all the Royal Family members, Matt admitted who he thinks would be the best baker in the family.
Matt commented: “I feel like the Duchess of Cambridge will be good. I feel like she’s got the best experience making kids’ birthday cakes now.
“She’s the grown-up of that era of baking becoming really popular and seeing Bakeoff and watching all the cooking programmes on TV.
“So I feel like she’d be really invested in making the kids’ birthday cakes and would be very good at that.”
Matt offered advice on making the Queen’s favourite recipes at home, and whether or not they are achievable tasks.
He said: “That’s what’s really great about the winning recipe in this celebration is it’s something that is very achievable for anybody.
“You don’t need to be an expert baker, you can be a total novice in the kitchen but you’re going to still achieve something absolutely fantastic.
“Or you can be a high-level pastry chef and you can create different elements on your own and pull it all together.
“That’s what I really love about this is the fact that it appeals to anyone of any skill level. Therefore, it’s not intimidating for people that want to attempt to make it for their Jubilee lunch.”
Matt expanded on the excitement of working alongside Dame Mary Berry and meeting the Duchess of Cornwall.
“For me, that was double royalty, the Duchess of Cornwall and baking royalty, Dame Mary Berry.
“It was a really surreal experience to me that could only happen once in a lifetime. It was very exciting for me and a real honour to be in their presence to just watch them work and do their thing because I was really in awe.”