Prince Charles's secret EGG obsession

"As the king-in-waiting, Prince Charles devotes countless hours to pondering the most important issues of the day.

And none require quite so much attention, it seems, as the issue of whether his boiled eggs are cooked to perfection.

Charles, who is particularly fond of a boiled egg after a day's hunting, is so picky that his staff cook seven eggs ranging from runny to rock hard, which the Prince tests before choosing his favourite.
The revelation is one of a series of fascinating insights into the Royal household contained in a new book by the BBC's arch inquisitor Jeremy Paxman, which is serialised in the Daily Mail next week.

Paxman says in his book, On Royalty: "Because his staff were never quite sure whether the egg would be precisely to the satisfactory hardness, a series of eggs was cooked, and laid out in an ascending row of numbers.
"If the Prince felt that number five was too runny, he could knock the top off number six or seven."
Exactly what happens to the six rejected eggs, Paxman does not divulge. "

GORDON RAYNER - Mail on Sunday (23/09/2006)