Ex-Princess Di chef launches Dallas food trailer with British fish & chips

There's a new mobile food operation in town doing authentic fish & chips. Called Winston's British Fish N Chips, it's a spinoff of a concept founded in Vancouver, Washington, but one with local ties: One of the partners is chef Darren McGrady, who now resides in Plano but was famously the former personal chef to Diana, Princess of Wales.

Winston's is a food trailer - different from a food truck - and it specializes in fish & chips, along with other authentic British foods including:

• Fish N Chips + Mushy Peas
• Fish N Chips + Curry Sauce
• Steak & Ale Pie + Chips
• Cornish Pasty + Chips
• Sausage Roll + Chips

The fish & chips feature cod in a thick crunchy crust, with "chips" (fries) cut thick in an authentic manner. Steak & ale pie, a classic pub dish, comes in a buttery crust. Prices are $13 to $16.

Winston's was founded by Timothy Johnson, a Vancouver-based entrepreneur who remembers a fish & chips startup from his childhood in Portland.

"It was called Enry Beazley's Fish and Chips, and they had the most incredible food that everybody went crazy over it," Johnson says. "I always thought about how it impacted the city and hoped to do the same with a very authentic version of fish & chips."

"In my research, I kept coming across Darren McGrady, who was running his catering company, and contacted him about being a partner," Johnson says. "This is someone who cooked at Buckingham Palace, so you know it's going to be made properly."

They launched in Vancouver in March.

"It was an absolute smash," Johnson says. "We were so heavily inundated with traffic, with people wanting to try proper British fish & chips, from the exact same recipes he used to serve the royal family, kings and queens, at Buckingham Palace. It's not just food to fill your belly - we are delivering a cultural experience."

Expanding to where McGrady lived seemed the logical thing to do. They're starting with a weekend stand on Saturdays at the Cottonwood Market in Richardson, which they hope to eventually extend into seven days a week.

"In Vancouver, most of the mobile food operations are food trailers but here it's food trucks," Johnson says. "Some cities do not have any ordinance in place for food trailers. We're waiting for Richardson to amend that so that we can set up at Cottonwood Market every day."

Meanwhile, they also have a deal with a company that owns malls such as the Windhaven Plaza at 3305 Dallas Pkwy. in Plano and the Preston Valley Shopping Center at 12817 Preston Rd. in Dallas, where they'll also set up shop. Using words we've used many a time, you can follow them and track their whereabouts on Instagram.

"We have the world's best steak & ale pie, and pretty soon we are going to add desserts, including Princess Diana's most treasured dessert," Johnson says. "She was once recorded saying, 'No one in the world makes bread & butter pudding as good as my chef Darren.' We'll also do some tarts and we're hoping to do scones with clotted cream - as authentic as what Darren served to the Queen every day."

Johnson says he recently investigated his ancestry and was delighted to learn that he and Princess Diana crossed paths, both sharing a great-great-great ancestor 10 generations ago.

"So we can truthfully say that Winston's is from Princess Diana's cousin and her former personal chef," he says.