Mark Donald takes head chef role at Glenturret distillery restaurant

Mark Donald has been appointed head chef at the Glenturret Lalique restaurant, due to open at the Glenturret distillery in Scotland later this summer.

The menu at the fine dining restaurant, located within Scotland’s oldest working distillery, will feature local Scottish produce used to create classical French dishes.

Donald was previously head chef at Number 1 at the Balmoral in Edinburgh, where he retained its Michelin star until he left earlier this year. Prior to that he spent four years in Australia as head chef of Bentley, and also worked in senior positions at two-Michelin-starred Hibiscus in London and two-Michelin-starred Restaurant Andrew Fairlie at Gleneagles.

The Glenturret Lalique will join Lalique’s other restaurants including Villa René Lalique, the two-Michelin-starred restaurant and hotel based in Alsace, and Château Lafaurie-Peyraguey, the one-Michelin-starred restaurant and hotel near Bordeaux.

Donald said: “I’m very excited to be part of this unique and exciting culinary experience. The distillery has a long-standing history and great heritage – as does Lalique – so it was an exciting task to combine this with fresh, innovative ideas. Working closely with the local producers and suppliers has been wonderful so far; together with my team, I feel we have managed to create a contemporary, thought-provoking menu wrapped in the genuine Scottish hospitality for which the Glenturret is renowned.”

John Laurie, the Glenturret’s managing director, added: “We are thrilled to have Mark join the Glenturret Lalique restaurant. Not only is his humble and charismatic attitude a perfect fit for our close-knit team here at the Glenturret, [but] his exceptional knowledge of Scottish produce, combined with his creativity, will perfectly complement both the heritage of where we have come from and the new direction in which we are going with the restaurant.”