I've been coming to Mark's Club ever since Mark Birley first started it. In my opinion he's probably the greatest restaurateur in England, and he has the best taste of anyone I know. This is a [private] dining club, and the idea is that it is like your home. That is why I like it so much. The atmosphere is so adorably welcoming. And the paintings are so charming, and the flowers are always marvellous, and the lighting is good, so you don't look monstrous. Lighting can put you so off a restaurant. Here, the carpets are thick, the sofas are deep, the chairs seat well, and the service is superb. The staff are not brisk or bossy, but gentle and quiet.

The food is English. This is terribly important. That is to say that it is not steak-and-kidney pie all the time, though they do have steak-and-kidney pie. What do I mean by English food? I mean food that is fairly plain, with not much in the way of cream, which is a French tradition. You are not aware of much oil in the cooking, nor too much in the way of herbs - again a foreign thing, other than English herbs like rosemary. So in a sense the food is plainer. But bland? Oh no, in no way bland. English food is not bland! English food is full of salt and pepper. Too much, unfortunately. I'm very health-conscious. The Prince and I are fortunate enough to be invited out quite a lot, whether it's an official or a private engagement, and so every now and then I do have to eat very wonderful, rich things. I've just been in France for the weekend: in Bergerac, which is the home of foie gras. Well, I mean, how can you not?

Coming here means I know I can have something not too rich. Sea bass, for example. I do eat pudding, yes. I had something at a private house recently that I must get made at home. It was aspic of citrus that was absolutely marvellous and it had some delicious herb in it that my hostess promised she'd ask her chef about. I think at the moment there is a tendency to serve fruit en gelée. I certainly do it at home a lot - there is always a bowl of jelly in my refrigerator. Always. So if I'm hungry - because I had to skip lunch for some reason - I just have jelly. It's filling and not fattening, and it means I'm not having a sandwich. Do you see? That's the thing.

I have an industrial appetite, and so my greatest problem is to limit the amount I eat. I'm trying hard, eating only half of whatever comes my way. In theory your stomach shrinks. I do hope so. I've just come from Siberia, and what do you eat in Siberia? Bread and dumplings basically. Well, the bread is just wonderful there. Wonderful! I ate lots of it unfortunately and so now I'm on starvation rations. Are you familiar with spelt? Spelt is new for me. It came to me in the form of pasta. I have a passion for spaghetti, but I restrict myself to only eating it when I'm in Italy. But with spelt you don't put on weight, so you can have something like spelt spaghetti with a fresh tomato purée: perhaps blended fresh tomatoes with some basil, a little bit of lemon, a little bit of cayenne, a little bit of ginger - I always put ginger on everything - a little bit of turmeric, and a few sesame seeds perhaps. To make it crunch. Delicious.

We don't have a cook at home. I have a housekeeper, and when we entertain we bring someone in. I have several chefs that I call up. I've had a cook at home in the past, but we found we were eating too much. They make bread for you, and you can't resist eating it, and anyway it hurts them if you don't, so to be kind you gain weight. Which is absurd.

Before I married, my mother said, 'You've got to learn to cook,' and I said, 'Oh Mum, I'm not going to be cooking!' She said, 'You need to learn, because even if you are lucky enough to have a cook, how can you ever criticise something if it doesn't taste right? How will you know what should be changed?' I was thrown into the kitchen with our wonderful Hungarian cook, and she taught me to make the five things that have become my staples. Well, I never have to cook more than five meals on the trot, you see, so if you ask my husband, he'll say, 'Oh she's a great chef. Great chef!' Because maybe once a fortnight I cook for him. Or the children will come home and say, 'Oh Mum, please do Wiener schnitzel for us.' I do a mean Wiener schnitzel.

I'm not a lady that lunches to be honest with you. If I'm at home alone, I usually have a tray by my desk: a delicious salad with lots of yummy things in it and a dressing made out of tahini and goat's yoghurt. If the Prince is at home we lunch together. He often is at home as he is not a man that goes out to an office. But lunch isn't something that disrupts my day at all, in terms of my writing. I'm a late-night writer. I'll write or read till about 3am every night - sometimes later if I'm on a roll. Even if I come home late after being out, I will go back to the computer. That's why I hate early starts: I'm not quite there in the early morning. I probably don't get up before 8 or 8.30. Which is late, I know. But I do it at the other end. It's just always been my way.

· Mark's Club, London, 020 7499 2936. Members only. HRH's Princess Michael of Kent's latest book Crowned in a Far Country (Simon & Schuster) is out now