Tom Parker Bowles on his new book of royal recipes – and why he's staying away from Ozempic (for now).

It is believed that the late Queen's permission was sought as to whether it was OK for Tom Parker Bowles to write a recipe book on the subject of the history of royal food. Although the man himself – author, chef, son, father, brother, stepbrother, godson, general family man – is now the focus The Family – can’t quite remember how the process worked, but yeah, he definitely asked, he says with a barely perceptible eye roll. “Thanks for looking.”

“It was about, when the late Queen's jubilee happened,” he recalls, “raising the flagpole” with the royal household in early 2022 and getting official approval to detail the eating habits of monarchs from Queen Victoria onwards (Reader tip: Prepare the brawn. “It was their finale [jubilee]. I can’t remember which one,” he recalls. “Diamond maybe?” Platinum, Tom. “platinum! That’s right.” He smiles, hyper-casual, always respectful. Classic TPB.

We're sitting at the corner table of 45 Jermyn St (of course) at 11am, a soaked St James's, looking untouched by time, lying behind him. Two years after receiving the all-clear Cooking & the Crown and now he himself is the son of a queen (scattered recipes from Her Majesty even appear – one of which is for porridge). It's a turn of events as reassuring in its narrative arc as it is unimaginable when compared to his rise into public life in the '90s, as King Charles III. was his godfather (His Majesty married Camilla, Tom's mother, in 2005) and a rave-loving teenager who got high recreationally was guaranteed to make the front pages of the tabloids.

Oh, what a difference a decade or three makes. Now, at 49, a touch of eternal party spirit remains. “I still look back on those wild days as some of the happiest of my life. There were ten thousand people in a warehouse or a field dancing together. I still love dance music, I still love Ibiza, but things are very different. I think DC10 has a VIP section now.” He looks absolutely disgusted. “It’s horrific.”

Trips to the island – like the one he took last summer – now often involve drinking one too many rosés in the villa. Co-parenting (he has a daughter and a teenage son with Sara Buys, a former fashion editor who worked at). fashion early in her career), writes (he is the restaurant critic for Post on Sunday, among other appearances), television work (he appears Master chefand has filmed food shows in the US and Australia), not to mention the general drudgery of keeping midlife going, don't conspire to let go. Fifty years were approaching and, as expected, he had recently been on a health spurt, although his onset was less understandable in the run-up to last year's coronation (global television audience: 400 million).