Tom Parker Bowles reveals the inspirational role of kings, queens and Heinz Baked Beans behind his new book from the posh people’s grocer

What’s the big idea? This is the first official Fortnum & Mason cookbook since the store was founded more than 300 years ago. Surely its customers have people to cook for them? It is not intended as a mere coffee-table book, destined to look good but gather dust. It’s a book that should become splattered and worn with constant use; to be bent, bruised and adored. But it’s all about grouse and caviar, right? The recipes are a fusion of the classic and modern, from porridge and boiled eggs for breakfast to Goan fish curry and lamb chops with tomato and mint salsa for dinner. In between there are recipes for favourites such as trifle (see page 68), shortbread (see page 71) and fish pie. Remember that back in 1886 Fortnum & Mason was the first shop in Britain to sell Heinz Baked Beans. Well, that all sounds doable… Like Fortnum & Mason itself, the book aims to be timeless and practical, offering a taste of Britain with a global appetite; a keeper of British tradition and a curator of the world’s greatest ingredients. The recipes, though, are all united by two things: their connection with Fortnum & Mason, and the fact that they taste darned good. Where did it all begin? William Fortnum was a footman to Queen Anne and one of the perks of his job was being allowed to keep the spent candles (the Royal Family insisted on new ones each night). That meant a lot of spare wax, which he sold on for a decent profit. He also had a grocery sideline and in 1707 he convinced his landlord, Hugh Mason, to go into business with him. So Fortnum met Mason. They built their grocery in St James’s, as near as possible to the royal palace. Then, as now, it was the very centre of upscale, old-school society. Not exactly Lidl or Aldi, then? Fortnum & Mason is so much more than a mere shop. It’s a national icon, a British institution, the finest grocer of them all. This is a store that has fuelled British history, helped build empires and fed the appetites of kings and queens, maharajahs and tsars, emperors, dukes and divas. So we’ll be in good company? Fortnum’s list of clients is a definitive Who’s Who of the grand, gilded and great: every British monarch since Queen Anne, prime ministers from Gladstone and Disraeli, the most brilliant of war leaders – Wellington, Churchill and Montgomery – and actors from Sir John Gielgud to Sir Michael Caine. Plus, some of the greatest writers ever, including Byron, Dickens, James, Conrad, Wodehouse, Betjeman and Waugh. Anyone else we should know about? After Edward VIII abdicated and was waiting in exile to marry Wallis Simpson at Château de Condé in France, he had Fortnum’s send down their Craster kippers every morning by plane. Anything to avoid that gloomy continental breakfast… What is your own first memory of Fortnum’s? It was a chill winter’s evening in the early 80s. I was dressed in my London best, up from the country to see the Christmas shop windows with my cousin and grandmother. Maybe, if we were very good, she would buy us a banana split at Fortnum’s legendary Fountain. Did it live up to expectations? For someone brought up in the depths of Wiltshire, London was thrilling. And Fortnum & Mason was the very pinnacle of big-city glamour. The windows were spectacular, warm and lavish, and inside the place was laden with candied fruits, gleaming decorations and vast, extravagant crackers. For me, it was utterly magical – more Narnia than Piccadilly. And did you get your banana split? We fought our way through the festive hordes and found ourselves in the Fountain, where that banana split, with its lashings of cream and fruit and chocolate and ice cream, seemed impossibly big. It was lust at first sight.