The Queen’s Cook and the Modern Search for Happiness
The royal family eats exactly the same food you do. But appearances are misleading: here’s how to eat better without spending lots of money.
You’ve probably never thought about what the Queen of England eats. It turns out it’s surprisingly ordinary: Prince Harry loved mac and cheese, the Queen enjoys a slice of chocolate cake on her birthday, and their food comes from their own royal gardens—local, organic produce we can only dream of affording.
But here’s the surprising truth: true privilege in our world isn’t about exotic caviar or rare delicacies. It’s about access to simple, natural, healthy food. Think about your local farmer’s market where organic produce costs twice what it should, or how processed fast food is cheaper than fresh vegetables in many neighborhoods. This was exactly the concern Epicurus had 2,000 years ago.
Epicurus believed happiness comes from satisfying our natural needs in natural ways. But in today’s capitalist world, this has become surprisingly complicated.
Consider Makis, a Greek villager who owns a tavern. His family runs the business together: his wife cooks, his children serve tables between homework, and he grills fresh vegetables from his own fields. (1) If you want chicken, you can point to tomorrow’s dinner pecking worms in the soil. No frozen imports, no plastic packaging—(2)
And this is how the Queen eats too, from her royal estates.
So who’s truly privileged? Is it the billionaire in their penthouse eating imported steaks, or Makis enjoying tomatoes from his own backyard? According to Epicurean philosophy, real wealth is about freedom: freedom from dependence on a broken food system, freedom to nourish yourself naturally.
(3) Living an Epicurean life today means resisting the pull of convenience at the cost of health. It’s about baking bread at home with simple ingredients, taking walks instead of scrolling your phone, and building genuine human connections instead of collecting digital likes.
You don’t need to move to a Greek island or plant a massive garden. Small steps matter: cooking one meal from scratch each week, joining a community garden, or having coffee with a friend instead of texting. These choices move us closer to Epicurean simplicity—a life where happiness comes not from accumulation, but from freedom and natural abundance.
The true luxury isn’t what you can buy. It’s living in a way that makes you genuinely happy.
Footnotes:
(1) Lifestyle description of Makis’ daily life and business operations
(2) The original text explicitly states the availability of fresh, local ingredients at Makis’ tavern versus frozen/chinese imports
(3) The original talks about Epicurean living and resisting consumerism
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