Coronation Chicken: The UK Culinary Classic Fit for a Queen

Angela Wood helped invent Coronation Chicken to mark the crowning of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. Chris Radburn AFP
Angela Wood helped invent Coronation Chicken to mark the crowning of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. Chris Radburn AFP
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Coronation Chicken: The UK Culinary Classic Fit for a Queen

Angela Wood helped invent Coronation Chicken to mark the crowning of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. Chris Radburn AFP
Angela Wood helped invent Coronation Chicken to mark the crowning of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. Chris Radburn AFP

Angela Wood proudly recalls the poached chicken in creamy curry sauce recipe that she helped create for Queen Elizabeth II's coronation in 1953, and which has since become a British culinary classic. Coronation Chicken -- also called "Poulet Reine Elizabeth" -- is now so popular it can be found in supermarket ready-meals, pre-packed sandwiches and on the pages of many recipe books, said AFP. "It's not the same recipe though. It's just mayonnaise with a bit of curry put in," Wood, 89, says laughing as she talks about some modern versions of the famous dish. Wood was only 19 when, as a student at the renowned Le Cordon Bleu culinary school in Winkfield, near Windsor, west of London, she was asked to perfect a recipe created by the school's director, Constance Spry. Spry had been given the task of putting on a banquet for foreign dignitaries after the coronation on June 2, 1953. "Constance Spry walked into the kitchen and said 'this is something we're thinking of doing for the coronation... we'll keep testing it until we get it right,'" said Wood at her home in the picturesque market town of Kimbolton in eastern England. "Knowing that it was going to be foreign dignitaries from all over the world, she decided that it had to be slightly spicy but not over spicy," she told AFP. Another constraint was that the dish had to be prepared in advance so had to be cold, added Wood, looking elegant with short white hair, fuchsia-coloured lips and a matching cardigan. The ingredients also had to be available in the UK, where, even for a royal banquet, imported food was limited after World War II because of rationing. - A strange mix - So Wood set to work in the kitchen, experimenting "two or three times a week, for possibly three or four weeks". "We were forever boiling chickens," she said. After constantly tweaking the ingredients, they found the right balance. Wood showed AFP the original recipe, published in an old edition of the British gastronomic classic "The Constance Spry Cookery Book". The chicken should be poached with a bouquet garni, while the sauce is a reduction of chopped onions, curry powder, tomato puree, red wine and lemon juice. The mixture is then cooled and added to mayonnaise, lightly whipped cream and apricot puree. "It's a strange mixture. And people do the first bit (curry powder and wine) and taste it and it's just so horrible and strong," she laughs. "I mean you can't believe that it can be right." Wood is sometimes asked why she didn't use mango, as is used in many of today's versions of the classic. "Well, we didn't have mangoes..., we didn't have Greek yoghurt," she said, adding that "nowadays people add all sorts of things". The dish was described on the banquet menu, written in French, as "Poulet Reine Elizabeth" and was served to the 350 foreign guests with a rice salad containing peas and herbs. It followed a tomato and tarragon soup and trout. Strawberry galette was served for pudding, all washed down with Moselle and Champagne wines. - Platinum pudding - Wood never pursued a professional career as a cook, and instead ran the family farm after she got married. But for special occasions, she and her daughter still sometimes prepare the recipe that has assured her place in British culinary history. She said she is "honored" to have helped create the British classic, which earned her a reception with the Queen at the royal estate in Sandringham in February to mark her 70 years on the throne. To celebrate the monarch's record-breaking Platinum Jubilee, which will see four days of celebrations in early June, Britons have been invited to create a dessert for the Queen. The best entry is due to be announced on Thursday. "It's quite surprising how it (Coronation Chicken) certainly stood the test of time and I hope whoever wins the pudding, the same thing happens," said Wood. It would be a fitting tribute to "the most incredible reign" and a woman who "dedicated her whole life to the country", she adds.



How Did a Jet Flip Upside Down on a Toronto Runway and Everyone Survive?

A Delta Air Lines plane that crashed at Toronto Pearson International Airport is seen on February 18, 2025 in Toronto, Canada. (Getty Images/AFP)
A Delta Air Lines plane that crashed at Toronto Pearson International Airport is seen on February 18, 2025 in Toronto, Canada. (Getty Images/AFP)
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How Did a Jet Flip Upside Down on a Toronto Runway and Everyone Survive?

A Delta Air Lines plane that crashed at Toronto Pearson International Airport is seen on February 18, 2025 in Toronto, Canada. (Getty Images/AFP)
A Delta Air Lines plane that crashed at Toronto Pearson International Airport is seen on February 18, 2025 in Toronto, Canada. (Getty Images/AFP)

Investigators are probing the causes of an unusual plane crash at Canada's largest airport on Monday, when a regional jet flipped upside down upon landing during windy weather, sending 21 of the 80 people on board to hospital.

Video shows the Delta Air Lines plane belly up and missing its right wing at Toronto's Pearson Airport, and of the crash that involved no fatalities, circulated widely on social media. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada said on Tuesday that parts of the plane -- a Bombardier-made CRJ900 -- separated after impact and the fuselage came to rest slightly off the right side of the runway, upside down, facing the other direction.

The TSB said it is too early to know what happened and why. Here is what we know about this accident and similar crashes.

HOW DOES A PLANE LAND UPSIDE DOWN?

US aviation safety expert Anthony Brickhouse said aircraft are normally designed to land first on the two main landing gear, and then the nose gear. While the cause of the accident is unclear, the type of impact on the runway likely damaged the landing gear, leaving the plane imbalanced.

Brickhouse said that the plane ending up pointing in the opposite direction speaks to the amount of force and speed that led it to change direction.

"With all the forces and everything going on, if that wing is not there to support the aircraft it's going to go over," Brickhouse said. "It's not something that we see regularly, but when structures start failing, they can't do their job and the aircraft is going to react to the different forces on it."

HOW DID EVERYONE SURVIVE?

Passengers say they were hanging upside down in their seats after the crash.

"All of the passengers were wearing the safety belts. This prevented more serious injuries from occurring," said Mitchell Fox, director of the Asia Pacific Center for Aviation Safety.

Airplane seats are designed to withstand the force of 16 times the normal pull of gravity, or 16Gs, in a crash, whereas wings and fuselage are designed to handle 3-5Gs.

"In an impact-survivable crash, it's more important for the seats to hold up, giving passengers the best chance of survival," said Raj Ladani, a program manager for aerospace engineering at Australia's RMIT University. Good evacuation is key to air accident survivability, as witnessed last year when all 379 people escaped a burning Japan Airlines plane after a runway collision.

"The crew did a remarkable job of evacuating all of the passengers expeditiously," Fox said of the Delta crash.

HAS THIS HAPPENED BEFORE?

While rare, there have been cases of large jets flipping over on landing, including three accidents involving McDonnell Douglas' MD-11 model.

In 2009, a FedEx freighter turned over on landing in windy conditions on the runway at Tokyo's Narita airport, killing both pilots. The left wing was broken and separated from the fuselage attaching point and the airplane caught fire.

In 1999, a China Airlines flight inverted at Hong Kong while landing during a typhoon. The plane touched down hard, flipped over and caught fire, killing three of 315 occupants.

In 1997, another FedEx freighter flipped over at Newark in the United States, with no fatalities.

Brickhouse said it is too early to draw any conclusions from these earlier cases, especially as the MD-11 is a three-engine aircraft and the CRJ900 has two engines mounted toward the back of the aircraft, producing different flight dynamics.

HOW WILL THE INVESTIGATION PROCEED?

Unlike other investigations in which parts of the plane have gone missing, and there are mass fatalities, investigators will be able to interview all 76 passengers and four crew.

Investigators have access to the fuselage and wing, which are on the runway, and the black boxes -- the flight data and cockpit voice recorders -- have been sent for analysis.

"This is going to be a textbook investigation," Brickhouse said. "Some accidents, a lot of the pieces of the puzzle are missing. But right now looking at this accident, all the puzzle pieces are there. It's just you piecing them back together at this point."