What’s on the menu and who’s on the guest list at state banquet?

The state banquet is the spectacular spectacular Topper of a state visit, a sparkling party with speeches, royal toasts, trumpet brass bands and food and wine.

It is diplomacy served with gastronomy. An approach to shock and awakening in glass cut off from hospitality designed to ensure that a visiting leader like President Trump feels special.

The frame of St George’s Hall inside the castle of Windsor is a remarkable spectacle, a mixture of medieval banquet and film Harry Potter.

The staff developed in uniform in the corridor are as drilled as the soldiers who were in parade during the day. Table settings, five glasses per person, are terribly neat.

For the visit of Trump, the 160 guests, seated behind 1,452 pieces of cutlery, ate from a menu, written in French, which is reflected in:

• Hampshire Watercress Panna Cotta with parmesan shortbread and a quail egg salad
• Norfolk organic chicken ball wrapped in zucchini with a thyme juice and tasty infused
• Vanilla ice cream bomb inside the Kentish raspberry sorbet with slightly poached Victoria plums

Customers had a generous wine list.

• Wiston Estate, Cuvé, 2016
• Domaine Bonneau de Martray, Corton-Charlemagne, Grand Cru, 2018
• Ridge Vineyards, Monte Bello, 2000
• Pol Roger, Extra Tank of Réesereve, 1998

Dinks after dinner drowned in symbolism. It is a vintage port from 1945, in honor of Trump having been the 45th American president, although he does not drink alcohol.

There was a cognac from 1912, of the birth year of the mother of Scottish origin of the president.

If that does not seem enough, there was a special cocktail, the sour transatlantic whiskey, which mixes Johnnie Walker with the brilliant citrus of Marmelade, with pacan mousse and a grilled marshmallow on a cookie.

President Trump’s banquet in Windsor’s castle was visibly lacking faces of celebrities or screen stars. Was there people in Hollywood, or even west of London, who suddenly discovered that they had to be elsewhere tonight?

There is not even a robust royal perennial like Sir David Beckham or Sir Elton John.

Instead, the guest list was heavy on political operators and Tech Bros. Apple boss Tim Cook was there, sitting next to the president’s daughter, Tiffany Trump.

Press baron Rupert Murdoch was sitting next to the key advisor to Sir Keir Starmer Morgan McSweeney. The small conversation must be interesting when Trump continues the Murdoch press for billions in the United States.

As during a wedding, guests must check the signage plates around the table delicately decorated to see who they are seated.

The “head” of the table is in the middle of the Windsor’s state banquet, with the king and the president in the center of a 47 m long dining table.

President Trump, as a guest of honor, was placed between King Charles and Catherine, the princess of Wales.

Trump’s signage plaque said “The President of the United States of America”, although in capital letters, strangely recalling his messages on social networks.

Facing them is the first lady, whose signage plaque says “Mrs. Trump”, with Queen Camilla and the prince of Wales on each side of her.

The layout of the seats launched interesting groups. There was the American ambassador Warren Stephens flanked Princess Anne On one side and Chancellor Rachel Reeves on the other.

Prime minister Sir Keir Starmer was next to Stephen Schwarzman, Mega-Riche CEO of Blackstone Investment Group. If conservative leader Kemi Badenoch was looking for ideas, she was sitting next to Sam AltmanManaging Director of the Artificial Intelligence Company, OPENAI.

The US Secretary of State Marco Rubio was there and Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff. Among British politicians Secretary of Foreign Affairs Yvette Cooper and Vice-Prime Minister David Lammy were there.

Golfer Nick Faldo and athlete Lady Katherine Grainger were among the most important sports stars in the banquet.

Jensen Huang, general manager of Nvidia, was one of the technological contingents.

On the walls are royal portraits and armor costumes and the ceiling is dotted with the coat of arms of the knights of the garter.

St George’s Hall was rebuilt after the 1992 fire. So, maybe like many stories about the Royals, it seems new and old at the same time.

According to the American traveler’s press pack, the choice of banquet music reflected some of President Trump’s favorites. Maybe they have their own messages to listening politicians.

He understands Nessun Dorma, which means “none will sleep” and you cannot always get what you want.