Princess Diana's chef tells of dressing gown and tiara moment

Mervyn Wycherley, 59, who worked in the Royal household for 22 years, has also disclosed how the Prince of Wales picked vegetables from his Highgrove garden for dinner, flew pheasants from the Queen's Sandringham estate for a banquet in the Tropics, and had his eggs boiled for precisely four minutes.

Mr Wycherley has spoken for the first time because he is selling mementoes from his time with the couple and then the Princess who he worked for after the marriage broke-up.

They include a Valentine card which said: "Hey Valentine! Not many men will receive a Valentine's card from Princess Diana ...and you're one of them!!"

She also sent him a card showing 24 condoms hanging on two washing lines with the message: "Dear Mervyn, Wishing you a very happy birthday, with much love from Diana, X."

Mr Wycherley, who first cooked for the couple on the Royal Yacht Britannia on their honeymoon in 1981, was one of the Princess's most trusted aides and knew all about her battle with the eating disorder bulimia.

He said: "Diana was always popping into the kitchen at Kensington Palace. The green baize door would swing open and she would pop in to raid the fridge and have a chat. One day our service lift broke down and we had a couple of engineers in the kitchen.

"It was the State Opening of Parliament that day and Diana's hairdresser Sam McKnight had already weaved a tiara into her hair. The Princess wanted a yoghurt from the fridge for her breakfast and she swept into the kitchen wearing just her dressing gown and the tiara.

"She came out laughing her socks off saying: "You do realise they're going to leave Kensington Palace thinking I always wear a tiara - even when I'm in my dressing gown"!."

The chef said he was bombarded with notes from the Prince praising him for the dinner parties he prepared. Nicholas Soames, the Tory MP and close friend of the Prince of Wales, was a particular fan.

"Some of your creations, like the oeufs ecossais, have become famous and Mr Nicholas Soames drools at the mouth at the thought," he wrote. Mr Wycherley said: "They are small grilled salmon fishcakes topped with a poached egg and hollandaise sauce and Mr Soames often used to have two helpings!"

The Prince of Wales, who has an organic farm at Highgrove, was often found in the vegetable patch picking his dinner. "The Prince used to walk over to the garden in the early evening and pick things like peas and asparagus for his dinner." He used to also pass on recipes to his personal chef. In two memos estimated he wrote: "Mervyn, could we please have some lovage soup at some stage? There's lots growing very tall in the kitchen garden and longing to be used."

In another, he wrote: "Enclosed are two recipes for making orange gin and damson gin. We have damsons at Highgrove so I would be very grateful if you could use them (the small plums) to make damson gin. Could you also make the orange gin when Seville oranges are in."

Mr Wyhcherley has cooked for Kings, Queen, Presidents, Prime Ministers and countless VIPs at Buckingham Palace, Sandringham, Kensington Palace, Highgrove and on foreign tours around the world. He is selling his memorabilia at Reeman Dansie auctioneers in Colchester on November 24.

Mr Wycherley, who now runs his own catering company, said: "On foreign tours we would take pheasants from Sandringham. The Prince used to love it when we served Sandringham pheasants at banquets in the Tropics!"

He also revealed how he always kept three pans of eggs boiling on the stove at Highgrove when Prince Charles returned from hunting. "The Prince like boiled eggs and crumpets for tea. But his eggs had to be boiled for exactly four minutes. His detectives radioed his ETA ahead, so I always kept three pans boiling - just to be safe."