Hundreds turn out for Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall

THE Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall were greeted by well-wishers on the streets of Edinburgh today.

Charles and Camilla, known as the Duke and Duchess of Rothesay in Scotland, watched the end of a march from Edinburgh Castle down the Royal Mile into the forecourt of the palace of Holyroodhouse. They where given a royal salute from a parade of Navy, Army and RAF personnel.

More than 100 people lined the streets at the bottom of the Royal Mile and were joined by Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond, who watched the 250-strong parade pass the Scottish Parliament en-route to the palace grounds.

Charles, who was wearing a naval admiral’s uniform, and Camilla greeted people watching from the crowd and reviewed the parade on the palace forecourt before hosting a lunch reception for those involved.

The food was from menus made by Scottish school children taking part in the British Food Fortnight’s Cook for the Queen Diamond Jubilee competition.

The competition was created by Camilla and invited all schools in the UK to create a special menu of British recipes which will be served to the Queen and the Duchess of Cornwall at a reception in Buckingham Palace in June.

Ahead of the parade, the Duchess met pupils from four schools taking part in the competition and donned her cooking apron to help them prepare their recipes with royal chefs in the kitchen of the palace of Holyroodhouse.

Pupils from Brae high school in Shetland, Pencaitland primary in East Lothian, Cardross primary in Dunbartonshire and Canongate primary in St Andrews met the Duchess and told her the inspiration behind their menus.

Max Leveque, 11, from Pencaitland, said: “We told the Duchess we were making wild boar sausages and apple crumble, and she was interested when we told her that all the ingredients were from local places in East Lothian.

“She said she was looking forward to trying our food at the lunch.”

The S3 pupils from Brae left Shetland on Monday and took a 14-hour ferry to Aberdeen before a train journey to Edinburgh to meet Camilla.

Home economics teacher Moira Dobson travelled with the pupils and said the the day was worth the long trip.

She said: “The Duchess was delighted that we had come all the way from Shetland and she told the pupils how she had been there a couple of years ago with Prince Charles to open a museum.

“She asked if the weather was still wet and windy, and we had to agree it was.

“But she really enjoyed helping out and trying our jubilee crabcakes and vol au vents.”

Other choices on the lunch menu included haggis fritters, scallops and Stornoway black pudding.

Royal chef Visen Anenden was delighted with the children’s efforts.

He said: “They have all made really interesting menus with a great blend of flavours and seasonal produce.

“It’s good to see children cooking and that’s the great thing about this competition.

“I’m sure everyone at the reception will enjoy the food and hopefully some of these schools can make it all the way to the final.”

More than 200 schools across Britain entered the competition and next week 16 finalists will be chosen and passed to the head chef at Buckingham Palace, who will pick four schools to travel to London to cook with him ahead of the jubilee reception.