Prince William gestures during a visit of a school. File photo

The Prince of Wales left unsuspecting diners in shock after he helped serve vegetarian burgers made with Earthshot Prize-winning products.

Prince William took part in a video by the popular YouTube channel Sorted Food and invited supporters of the channel to try three winning entries from his environmental prize.

Participants had no idea that the royal would be the one serving them their burgers and many were visibly surprised by his presence.

In the video, William is seen in a food van in central London with the Sorted Food chefs. Upon recognising him, one diner puts her hand to her mouth in shock.

After placing several “Earthshot burgers” on a counter, the prince said: “Morning everyone, nicely cooked – ready to go.

“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.

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“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.”

William’s Earthshot Prize, which he launched with David Attenborough in 2020, awards five winners out of 30 finalists £1m to continue their environmental work. Kheyti won the Protect and Restore Nature category, while Mukuru and Notpla won the Clean Our Air and Build A Waste-Free World categories respectively.

The chefs created a potato-based spicy burger flavoured with garlic, ginger and chilli, served with pickled vegetables in a bun.

After seeing the future king serving burgers out of the van, one diner said: “My brain took three seconds to buffer. Am I dreaming? Have I had enough sleep?”

Another said: “I was lost for words.”

In the video, William is seen arriving at the Sorted Food studio to drop off items produced by the Earthshot Prize winners and told chefs his project was four years “in the making”.

He joked: “I had hair when it started.” William then left them to create the burgers.

Jamie Spafford, co-founder of Sorted Food, which is known for promoting environmentally friendly food solutions, 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.”

The Independent