THE woman who devised and created the menu for the Queen’s lunch has described it as a “great honour”.

Tina Boughey, of Worcestershire Cookery, based in Sinton Green, was approached to cater for the Queen’s visit to Worcester on Wednesday by the Lord Lieutenant’s office in January.

She said: “They had eaten my food at the university and a couple of other times, so they asked if they could put my name down. I don’t say no to anything, I like a challenge.

“It was a huge honour. Everyone who works for me was so excited.”

The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh joined 150 invited guests for lunch at the Guildhall.

They enjoyed a two-course lunch, beginning with a starter of fresh asparagus with a parsley and lemon oil dressing, followed by a main course of pancetta wrapped free-range chicken breast with a tomato, pine nut and basil stuffing and a vermouth basil infused cream sauce.

The original brief was for a lamb main course and a dessert.

Mrs Boughey put the menu together and included starters, as well as “two or three” lamb dishes for variation and sent taster dishes to the Palace.

But to her surprise, the Palace came back with a request for a chicken main course, a starter and no dessert.

Despite her very important guests, Mrs Boughey said she was prepared and treated it like any other event.

She said: “Everybody loved the food. We had lots of compliments.

“There’s not a lot of space in that kitchen, it’s quite hard, and we were extremely tight for time.

"I think it was the time really, it put a little bit of extra pressure on us. But there were no major disasters.”

Mrs Boughey said she suspected the Queen had changed her mind to ensure a varied menu on her packed Jubilee tour.

“It doesn’t matter who it is, you want them to be pleased,” she said.

“You want the job to go well and want people to say to you afterwards, ‘That was delicious, thank you so much’.”

• Click here for our picture gallery from the event.

• Click here to see our special page from the day.