Where the Chefs Eat: Mark Donald on his Edinburgh must-eats

A stint in Australia preceded a stage at Copenhagen’s Noma under Rene Redzepi. Then, “a close friend of mine, Ian Scaramuzza, was working at Hibiscus in London with Claude Bosi as sous chef and he brought me into their fold, so I was there for three years.” It was at Hibiscus that Mark met his Tasmanian wife, Madeleine. Her visa ran out and it was back to Australia he went with her but, despite his impressive CV, when they returned to the UK together, it was only agency work he could find. That, according to Mark, “required a huge amount of humility. I did a lot of biting my tongue, being asked if I knew how to peel asparagus.” But a job at Number One, The Balmoral came up, “which in some people’s opinion is a bit old school but I got offered the job there and managed to inject a bit of modernity into it, and it was great. We retained the star while I was there, too,” he tells me proudly.

Lockdown hit hard and, after two 2020 hospitality closures, “we came back at Number One and really hit the ground running. It was rumoured we were heading for a fifth AA rosette so most people in a position secure would not have made the decision to leave a job at that point,” especially after what he had gone through to get that position, but “I then got a call saying that this distillery wanted a chef and, of course, the connotations of that are heavy, saucy, old-fashioned dishes with Scottie dog bonbons. But I saw that Lalique (the iconic French glass and crystal manufacturer) was backing it. “This was a big leap because there was no one really doing food and whiskey at this level at that time. It was usually soup and sandwiches, coffee and cake at distilleries.” Having now secured two Michelin stars, it’s clear Mark’s leap of faith paid off.

Scotland is home to Mark once more, and he absolutely adores it. “When I was living in Australia, I had a great flat with a barbecue and a pool outside. It was gorgeous but I missed Scotland. I missed how, when you wake up, it’s dark and, when you get home, it’s dark. I missed not knowing if it was going to be sunny or snowy or rainy, or all three in one day. There is a magic and wonder to Scotland. It’s so empty for how small it is. You can disappear for a day and not see anyone.”

And as for the food? “Well, I’m sure Tom Kitchin has covered it over the years, but the shellfish is unmatched; a lot of the seafood is unmatched and the game, in my opinion, is unmatched. There are times in Scotland where nothing grows, and I’m not going to say you can get everything within a 10 mile radius, because that isn’t realistic. But, if people are paying for a certain standard, then you want the best of everything. I won’t let the menu be dictated by provenance alone; it has to be dictated by quality, and we’re very fortunate that we have a lot of quality around us up in Scotland.”