The Duchess of Cornwall gave the royal seal of approval to the meals on wheels service when she visited Surrey this morning.

The Duchess, wearing a duck-egg blue skirt suit, was greeted by the Hairy Bikers and staff at the Molesey Centre for the Community on Thursday, May 26.

The Duchess met volunteers and recipients of meals on wheels at the East Molesey centre while the Hairy Bikers, Simon King and Dave Myers, served up a lunch including beef stroganoff, Manchester tart, jam roly-poly and Camilla’s own recipe for fish pie.

The service is trying to recruit new volunteers, and the Duchess chatted with the chefs and tasted the food before helping serve it.

Gloria Cogle, 88, the service's longest serving volunteer, said: “Both my parents had strokes and were house bound, so when I retired I wanted to give something back.

“[The lunch] was very nice. It was also very nice meeting the Duchess. She was very charming.”

Julia Cutcliff, who has volunteered there for four months, said: “I had been made redundant so I had some time and no excuse not to do something.

“It’s lovely, such a fantastic service. The people are just welcoming and appreciative and also characters, with great senses of humour.”

Mike Smith, a 17-year-old catering and hospitality student at Brooklands College, helped cook the stroganoff and vegetables.

He said: “I have been working here for a while now. It’s been great experience and because it goes to the people, not for profit, it makes it more worthwhile.”

The bikers are attempting to get meals back on their wheels by improving the quality of food being offered and encouraging community members to engage with the service.

Their new BBC series explores the social issue of providing meals on wheels in Britain today, which hand delivers hot food to the elderly.

The Duchess supported her husband, the Prince of Wales, on a number of royal engagements in Surrey on the same day.