Despite being Queen Camilla’s son and King Charles’s stepson, Tom Parker Bowles has largely stayed away from the royal scene. In fact, the accomplished food writer—who recently released royal-themed cookbook, Cooking & The Crown—revealed in a new interview that he only ever met Queen Elizabeth II twice in his life, and one of those times was quite a shock.

Parker Bowles, 49, and his sister, Laura Lopes, 46, grew up outside the world of palaces, with Tom telling the Independent that mom Camilla was “a good, basic cook.” But even after his mother married King Charles (then Prince Charles), Tom had little to do with the Royal Family. In fact, he recently told People he’d never gone to a royal Christmas celebration.

“When I was eight, I was so scared that I curtsied rather than bowed,” the author said of the first time he met Queen Elizabeth. Years later, in 2005, Camilla married Charles, and Tom would have an unexpected meeting with the Queen that left him somewhat “terrified.”

Explaining that he had “snuck out” for a cigarette with his sister “and got lost,” Parker Bowles shared that he “suddenly heard this voice saying, ‘are you okay?’” It was none other than The Queen.

“Obviously she was magnetic and lovely and she was The Queen, the most famous person in the world. We just followed like two rather terrified but awestruck puppies as she went down the hall with the dogs,” he added.

As for Cooking & The Crown, which details recipes dating back to Queen Victoria’s day, Parker Bowles says he’s careful not to be seen as a nepo baby (or in his words, “nepo middle-aged.”).

“[It’s been] 25 years of completely keeping away from the royals full stop,” he told the Independent when asked about using his connections in his career as a food critic. “If I had immediately gone, ‘Right, I’m doing a royal cookbook,’ it would have been seen as—well I’m not a baby anymore—but nepo middle-aged perhaps,” he quipped.

Tom continued that after "25 years of food writing, a quarter of a century, I’ve just about built up enough to say it’s interesting enough.”

Although he shares some of his mom and royal stepfather's favorite recipes in the book, the author said he was ever-mindful of “not stepping over any line into privacy."

However, Tom said that after Queen Elizabeth died, the project felt “closer to home." Somehow, we have a feeling The Queen would have been delighted with the results.