🔗 Share this article What's On Offer and The Guest List at the Official Dinner? The state banquet represents the grand highlight of a state visit, a opulent feast complete with speeches, formal greetings, trumpet fanfares and exquisite food and wine. It's diplomacy presented with fine dining. A cut-glass impressive approach to hospitality designed to make a visiting leader experience grandeur. The venue in the grand hall within the historic castle is a remarkable scene, a mix of historic feast and fantasy movie. Ornately dressed servers around the hall are as drilled as the troops that were on parade during the day. The table settings, multiple stemware for each guest, are terrifyingly neat. Culinary Offerings For the visit, the attendees, sitting behind over a thousand items of cutlery, will be eating from a menu, presented in French, which translates as: Creamy watercress mousse with Parmesan shortbread and quail egg salad Organic Norfolk chicken ballotine enveloped by courgettes with a thyme and savoury sauce Frozen vanilla dome with Kentish raspberry sorbet center and lightly poached Victoria plums Attendees enjoy a extensive wine list: Wiston Estate, Cuvée, 2016 Domaine Bonneau de Martray, Corton-Charlemagne, Year California red, Monte Bello, 2000 Pol Roger, Prestige cuvée, Late 90s After-dinner drinks are drowning in symbolism. It's a historic fortified wine, in honour of the 45th US president, even though he does not drink alcohol. Also served is a 1912 cognac, from the year of birth of the leader's Scotland-native mother. If that doesn't seem enough, guests can try a special cocktail, the Transatlantic Whisky Sour, which blends Johnnie Walker with the zesty flavor of orange preserve, topped with pecan foam and a caramelized confection atop a cookie. Attendees The dinner is noticeably lacking famous personalities or Hollywood figures. Did some people in Hollywood who suddenly found they had to be somewhere else? Absent are hardy royal perennial guests like Sir David Beckham or the music icon. Rather, the attendee roster is heavy on political operators and tech bros. Tech CEO Tim Cook is there, seated beside the president's daughter Tiffany Trump. Media magnate the news tycoon is sitting next to the opposition leader's top strategist Morgan McSweeney. The conversation is likely interesting given ongoing legal matters. Like at a wedding, guests must be checking the seating cards around the ornately-decorated table to identify who they're sitting beside. The center of attention is centrally located for the castle dinner, with the monarch and guest of honor in the middle of a dining table that is over 150 feet in length. President Trump, as the honored invitee, is seated alongside King Charles and Catherine, the royal consort. Across from them is the first lady, whose nameplate that says "Mrs Trump", with the queen consort and the heir apparent on either side. The seating arrangement creates some notable pairings. There's the diplomatic representative the envoy flanked by the royal princess on the left and Chancellor Rachel Reeves on the right. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is beside Stephen Schwarzman mega-wealthy chief of the Blackstone group. The opposition figure the Tory MP is seeking ideas, she's sitting next to the AI executive, chief executive of the tech company OpenAI. America's top diplomat the senator is there and Trump's special envoy the adviser. Among UK politicians Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper and the deputy David Lammy are there. Golfer the champion and athlete the rowing star are among the well-known athletes at the event. Throughout the hall are paintings of monarchs and knight's armor and the overhead is adorned by the coats of arms of royal order members. The banquet space was restored after the fire of 1992. So maybe as with tales about the monarchy, it feels new and old at the same time. Per the travelling US press pack, the choice of music at the dinner includes some of the leader's preferred tunes. Maybe they have their own meanings to the politicians present. It includes Nessun Dorma, which translates as "no one sleeps" and You Can't Always Get What You Want.