Prince William shocks diners with unexpected burger-serving appearance

Prince William shocked diners by making a surprise appearance to serve food from a burger van in central London.

One woman put her hand to her mouth in astonishment when she recognised the heir to the throne working in the food truck near London Bridge.

“Morning everyone, nicely cooked, ready to go,” the Prince of Wales said cheerily, putting burgers on the counter as customers stared in amazement.

William, 41, handed over Earthshot Burgers to invited subscribers of popular YouTube channel Sorted Food for a new episode of the show, which reviews kitchen gadgets and demonstrates simple, cheap, and environmentally-friendly recipes for its 2.7 million followers.

The episode, released today is part of a two-year tie-up between YouTube and The Earthshot Prize, the charity created by William to promote often small but innovative ideas to solve the planet’s biggest environmental problems and put it on a path to sustainability by 2030.

William, working with the Sorted Food chefs, explained that the world’s first Earthshot Burgers – a potato-based spicy burger flavoured with garlic, ginger and chilli with pickled vegetables served in a bun – were designed to showcase three of last year’s winners of the £50 million prize.

“So, for those of you who don’t know, the Earthshot Prize is there to repair and regenerate the planet,” he said.

“Everything you see here comes from the winners from last year. So the box you’re about to eat in is built (by) a company called Notpla and there’s no plastic involved, they’ve come up with a seaweed coating.

“The ingredients inside the burger are grown from a greenhouse in India from a company called Kheyti, and last but not least the way we cook them has been on a thing called Mukuru Clean Stoves, and that is designed by a lady in Kenya who came up with the concept to reduce air pollution.”

One of the diners said about seeing the future King: “My brain took three seconds to buffer. Am I dreaming? Have I had enough sleep?” while another said “I was lost for words”.

The video begins with William arriving at the Sorted Food studio to drop off the items produced by some of the 2022 Earthshot Prize winners – Notpla’s biodegradable cartons, Kenyan entrepreneur Charlot Magayi’s stove and Indian start-up Kheyti’s Greenhouse-in-a-box produce.

After telling the chefs his Earthshot project was four years “in the making”, he quips: “I had hair when it started,” before leaving them to devise and make the burgers.

Jamie Spafford, co-founder of Sorted Food, said: “Being joined at our studio and in the food truck by Prince William was a real ‘pinch me’ moment – hearing him explain how passionate he is about helping the planet and what the Earthshot Prize is doing was incredibly inspiring, and has already given us a lot of ideas for future projects to work on with our community.”