This visit was part of a press trip I ‘attended’ on behalf of Visit Aberdeen for FoodFest15 (www.foodfest15.com). FoodFest15 is Aberdeenshire’s take on ‘The Year Of Food & Drink Scotland’ 2015 – and if it’s anything like the experience I had, a grand old time it shall be for anyone who goes. It runs all the way through January to December, though I only showed up for a few days at the end of June. As far as I’m concerned, it’s ALWAYS the year of food and drink – I don’t care where I am, or what year it is. Anyway, I shall now talk about the place you can see before you…
The splendiferous looking food and architecture you see before you are the result of Donald J Trump’s development of the Menie Estate in Balmedie a few years ago. Trump International Golf Links, Scotland officially opened in July 2012, but the development, as you may imagine, took longer than that. Trump had “been actively looking for links land in Europe for the past few years” – and this one made a bit of a stir a with the compulsory purchase of the homes of people who’d actually been living in the area for…y’know, ages. There was a BBC documentary about it called ‘You’ve Been Trumped’.
Disregarding what may or may not have been entirely ethical purchase and all the butthurt that came of it, the end result of Mr. Trump’s purchase is very slick indeed. The Trump International Estate is set amongst mature woodland and certainly fits right into the majestic Aberdeenshire countryside (Trump described Scotland as “The Home of Golf”) . We saw two parts of the estate, which I’ll outline below
The first is The Clubhouse Restaurant. It’s all leather seating and floor-to-ceiling windows with views of the Great Dunes of Scotland and the North Sea. The menu is mostly Scottish/Modern European with a fair few American numbers snuck in. I was told by the food and beverage manager, Chris Hodgens, that every dish gets taste tested by ‘The Donald’ himself before final approval