Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, is already anticipating pushback on her banana pudding.
“I know some people will be upset that I took out the wafers,” she said, crushing Nilla wafers with a rolling pin rather than layering them in with vanilla pudding and sliced bananas. “But I like them crumbled on top.”
On a bright morning last week at her home in Montecito, Calif., Meghan roved between the garden, where Prince Harry stopped by the strawberry patch in Birkenstocks to say he was getting on a work call, and the vast, well-worn kitchen where her mother, Doria Ragland — graceful in jeans, white T-shirt and silver nose ring — rummaged for breakfast in the double-wide refrigerator.
“Grandma Jeanette would have used instant,” Meghan said, referring to Ms. Ragland’s mother, as they tasted a batch of homemade pudding flecked with vanilla. “But she would have loved this.”
Last month, in a new Netflix series, “With Love, Meghan,” the duchess gave the world its first look at the remake of her life from broken royal bride to triumphant domestic goddess. She and Harry fled Britain and its relentless criticism in 2020 to settle as a family in this safe, sunny, affluent enclave. But the show has brought some of that darkness back to her door.
Like Gwyneth Paltrow, Chrissy Teigen and other celebrities who have cooking and lifestyle brands, Meghan doesn’t have professional culinary training. Last week’s visit — the first time a reporter was invited into her kitchen — showed that she is a passionate home cook who knows her way around a vinaigrette, is quick with a lemon zester and deft with a knife. (I was allowed in on the condition that no photographs were taken in, or of, the house.)