Meghan Markle Criticized for Her Unusual Pasta Cooking Method: ‘That’s Not Food, It’s Punishment’

MEGHAN Markle’s pasta cooking technique has been slammed by online trolls.

Just 10 minutes into episode one of With Love, Meghan, which dropped on Netflix this morning, the Duchess of Sussex was seen tackling a dish called “skillet spaghetti”.

Meghan Markle in a white t-shirt baking in a kitchen.
Meghan Markle cooking ‘skillet spaghetti’ in episode one of With Love, MeghanCredit: Netflix
Spaghetti with vegetables in a pan.
She revealed her American twist on the Italian stapleCredit: Netflix
Hands adding spaghetti to a pan of sauce.
Her technique might make Italians winceCredit: Netflix

She said she makes it regularly for Prince Harry and their kids Archie and Lilibet.

But, while rustling up the dish with make-up artist Daniel Martin, she used a US twist on the Italian staple which she said her children love – but it’s something purists might wince at.

The duchess simply pours “three cups” of boiling water onto the spaghetti and then puts the lid on.


It comes as…

  • Meghan Markle’s new show, Meghan, With Love, was released on Netflix today
  • The series begins with an emotional Meghan fawning over bees and honey
  • In one episode, the Duchess of Sussex makes bacon and jokes: ‘My bacon brings all the boys to the yard’
  • She also corrects pal Mindy Kaling calling her ‘Markle’ – insisting her surname is ‘Sussex’
  • The Duchess goes onto share a touchy feely moment with Prince Harry, who appears briefly
  • Meghan adds bizarre items to ‘children’s party bags’ from Manuka honey sticks to gardening tools
  • In one bizarre moment, Meghan gets flustered and tells guest Alice Waters ‘I feel like you’re watching me fall in love’ while eating a turnip
  • She also lets loose on a hike, dancing with a pal while out on a dog walk
  • Fans slam show ‘the fakest stuff ever’ as they find identical recipes online

And also described the spaghetti as “noodles”.

Meg said “when I make this, I make it for my family” before clarifying “not that my children are eating heaps of noodles but I will make enough so that I can put leftovers in their lunchbox”.

Describing how the dish has ties to her old blog The Tig, she says: “This skillet spaghetti would have been on there.”

To make the meal, the royal put the dry pasta from a jar on a dish of feta and cherry tomatoes.

She said she would be using an entire packet of spaghetti and “three and a half cups of boiling water, give or take”.

Chard and kale were also added before the cooking was finished.

One cruel troll wrote online: “That’s not food – that’s punishment!”

Another described the dish as a “Pinterest Pot Noodle”.

One person said: “With so little water, the dish must be a gluey, sticky, starchy brick.”

Another pointed out: “Looks like fettuccini or linguini to me, not spaghetti.”

Another questioned: “She gives her kids leftover ‘noodles’ in their lunchboxes? Where are they in school?”

And another: “Her food looks very basic and a bit boring.”

Writing on X, someone asked why, if Harry is such a good cook as she claims in one episode, “maybe ask him for a few cooking tips”.

Another said: “She’s the most unoriginal home cooking and decor ‘creative’ out there.”

Royal author Hugo Vickers told The Sun Meg “opens herself up to a lot of criticism”.

He said: “People will say variously, well, where do these recipes come from?

“We’ve seen them before, or in some cases they’re saying, you know, you should not put pasta on the top of the tomatoes and then put boiling water on the top.

“That would not be done in Italy. That’s a disaster.

“We don’t actually get any sort of clue at the end as to what the ingredients that you would need if you wanted to follow any of these recipes.

“So I guess I guess following the recipes isn’t really the point of the whole thing. And there are obviously times, too, when you know there’s a cut.”

However, not everyone has judged her pasta-making so harshly.

One person wrote on X it was a “must to try and make”, while another added: “I’m definitely gonna make that pasta”.

And a third said: “I always do a bit of sauce at the bottom of the plate before the pasta too!”

Meghan Markle laughing in a kitchen with crew members.
Meghan brings a lighthearted tone to cookingCredit: Instagram
Woman checking on food in an oven.
She makes a number of simple dishes, alongside celeb palsCredit: Instagram
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle kissing in a garden.
Meghan and Harry during episode 8 share an awkward kissCredit: Netflix

The response from many viewers to the new show overall has been mixed.

Across eight 33-minute episodes the mum-of-two made cringe jokes about her bacon, shared recipes with pals, learnt from celeb chefs and even became emotional over bees.

One penned on X: “I’m not even 30 seconds into the first episode and I already know that With Love, Meghan is the FAKESTEST stuff ever.”

Another added: “Six minutes of with love Meghan… ok only for richest people..so.. bye bye.”

“All of Meghan Markle’s “recipes” can be found on Pinterest,” claimed someone else.

In one cringey food moment, Meg mimicks Fred Flintsone by pulling out a fish bone and saying “yabadabadoo” during a cooking session with pals Abigail Spencer and Kelly Zafjen.

Then at another point jokes that “my bacon brings all the boys to the yard”, and says when she cooks the salty meat Harry and the three dogs suddenly appear in the kitchen.

While making breakfast, she says: “I find when I’m cooking bacon, my kitchen very immediately becomes full of husband and three dogs. It’s not my perfume that’s bringing them all in. My bacon brings all the boys to the yard.”

In one bizarre moment, Meg gets flustered and tells her guest Alice Waters “I feel like you’re watching me fall in love” as she eats a turnip.

Meg later recalls being a “latchkey kid”, growing up with a lot of fast food and TV tray dinners watching Jeopardy.

Her favourites were Pollo Loco and Taco Bell where she ate the Mexican pizza with extra hot sauce and “Jack in the Box because my mum loved their tacos”.

In the same episode, Meg reveals her odd party bags for kids, which include gardening tools, peas and seeds and a manuka honey stick for “something sweet”.

Meg also tells Mindy that Harry cracks salt over every meal.

She says: “I have a family, a husband, who no matter what meal is put in front of him, before he tastes it, puts salt on. So I try to under-salt.”

Mindy jokes: “I love knowing that your husband likes it salty.”

At the end of episode six, Meg is joined by other members of her “Mom Squad” for Mexican food, cocktails and games of Mah Jongg on the patio.

She even teases her next book might be Game Night Cooking.

In the same episode, she manages to style out a slightly embarrassing moment, when she squirts juice over her arms and face while juicing a blood orange.

She says: “I’m fine, that woke us all up.”

Meghan Markle, Abigail Spencer, and Kelly Zafjen toasting with champagne cocktails in a kitchen.
Meghan with her pals Abigail Spencer and Kelly ZafjenCredit: COURTESY OF NETFLIX
Four women playing a board game outdoors.
Meghan and her pals during a Mah Jongg game nightCredit: COURTESY OF NETFLIX
Meghan Markle celebrating her show's launch on Netflix.
Viewers have poked fun at Meghan’s dancingCredit: Instagram

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