Mark Donald, the head chef at Number One at The Balmoral, Edinburgh, has shared a video of the Buckfast sweets on his Instagram.
This week Mark posted: "Coming to your mouth very soon" with a picture of a bottle of Buckfast and bottle sweet moulds. This was followed by a video of the sweets being coated in sugar.
Mark say that he is: "just playing around with the recipes just now. They are like cola bottles but with Buckfast - aka 'Buckfastic'".
The sweets are in development just now, a nod to Mark and Kayleigh Turner, the restaurant pastry chef's Glasgow roots, so diners will need to wait a while before being able to enjoy the Buckfast sweets at the end of their meal.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CD_wrdFDvSA/
Scottish-born Mark joined Number One, named after the hotel’s iconic address 1 Princes Street, in March last year after being in Sydney where he was head chef at Bentley Restaurant and Bar.
Prior to this he worked at a number of internationally renowned two Michelin star establishments including senior roles at Claude Bosi’s flagship Hibiscus restaurant in London and at Restaurant Andrew Fairlie at Gleneagles in Perthshire.
Mark also spent a significant stage at Noma in Copenhagen – the San Pellegrino World’s Best Restaurant at that time.
The Balmoral Hotel reopened last month, after being shuttered during lockdown.
Fans of Buckfast were faced with a shortage during lockdown as production was halted.
In May it was reported that Buckfast were forced to halt production with immediate effect due to the lockdown measures in place to stop the spread of coronavirus.
At this time Michael Onk founder of World Buckfast Day said: “Although Buckfast production has come to a temporary halt World Buckfast Day is still planned to go ahead in May, though the celebrations may be restricted to the kitchen, garden and living room rather than the local pub, club or restaurant.
“We will play it by ear and follow government advice over the next few weeks.”
The stop in production left fans with fears that they’d no longer be able to buy the drink – after sales manager Stewart Wilson said wholesalers were ‘out of stock’.
Since the announcement, the company has said that ‘limited stocks’ of Buckfast would be available at convenience stores – while also urging customers to obey the social distancing guidelines in place during lockdown and beyond.
