Tastings. That's what chefs have to do when they cook for the British queen. The monarch is not given to strolling into restaurants and having a bit of nosh - her outriders must go in first and try the food. Clearly if one of them drops down dead, her majesty will not be dining here, thank you.
So there are procedures. Three tastings before the queen will take her seat and eat. The guinea pigs must grin and bear it - probably enjoying it too - otherwise, number one will not be dining.
There are also precautions if the chef is Irish. At the Queen Elisabeth Hotel in Toronto, Canada - with 2,500 rooms, 23 restaurants, 2,000 employees, 170 chefs and 63 dish washers - chef Brendan Murphy, who now runs the Four Liars restaurant in the Shandon area of Cork, had to be checked out when Queen Elizabeth II came to dine.
Some 20 chefs were pressed into service when she entertained 80 guests there. Afterwards, she sent the executive chef a note on parchment to say how pleased she was with the evening. The tasters were still standing too.
Brendan Murphy was always interested in cooking. Coming from Rock Street in Tralee - the "street of champions", as it was known - he rubbed shoulders with great footballers like John O'Keeffe, Ger Power and Mikey Sheehy. His interest growing up was in athletics and football: his first love was Gaelic football and it surprised colleagues and fellow footballers that he chose cooking as his way of life..
He studied as a cook in Athenry, Co Galway, worked in Jurys in Dublin, Rosslare, and then in Hamburg. He cooked for the German Chancellor and went on to Switzerland to cook for Liz Taylor and Richard Burton. Elton John and many more savoured his cuisine before he went to the Queen Elizabeth Hotel.
Moving to the west coast of the US, he cooked for Jackie Kennedy, Henry Kissinger and the former US president, George Bush, in the Tucson Hilton. They chatted on the red carpet before lunch was served at $1,000-a-plate. Later, a thank-you letter arrived from the White House.
Three years ago, the wandering chef came home. The question now is will any of his old customers be dropping into the Four Liars?