If there is one thing that changes in Walt Disney World more
than the parks, it would have to be the food. We all have favorite dishes that
we’d love to see stay on a given menu, or spread to other menus so we can have
it more often, forever, but that’s not the nature of the culinary cabaret that
is Walt Disney World dining. Even the most mundane item, like chicken fingers,
isn’t safe from revamping.
Since the Vacation Kingdom opened its doors, guests have
been able to request recipes of their favorite dishes in order to recreate the
magic of dining in Walt Disney World at home, and to hold on to those dining
memories long after their favorite treat or cut of meat had been discontinued.
In 1986, however, Walt Disney World got wise to the cooking at home trend and
offered up Cooking with Mickey around Our World. The cookbook sourced all of
the restaurants of Walt Disney World to find the most sought after recipes and
placed 350 of them in one easy to read volume. Of course, easy to read and easy
to prepare are two entirely different things!
Cooking with Mickey covered a dozen categories, from
beverages to sauces and desserts to poultry and seafood, no corner of the
pantry was safe with these dishes. No corner of Walt Disney World was safe
either! The recipes came from far flung resort restaurants, such as Crockett’s
Tavern, and popular dining spots in and around the parks alike, including King
Stephan’s Banquet Hall. These days it allows home cooks to recreate memories
from the dining days gone by, it also allows us to try and craft dishes that we
may have never tried at the time. Just like postcards and guide maps give us an
accurate record of what the parks and resorts looked like in those early days,
Cooking with Mickey gives the Walt Disney World historian a glimpse into what
the parks and resorts tasted like in those formative years.
I know it is only a part of the 1986 marketing campaign for
the book, but I love this picture of Mickey Mouse perusing through Cooking with
Mickey in front of Cinderella Castle. I can almost imagine him trying to select
the perfect dish with which to woo Minnie with. Of course, the simple fact that
Walt Disney World thought the book warranted its own publicity photo tells you
what a big deal they thought it was at the time.
Whether you are looking for the perfect recipe for your
upcoming dinner party (I did mention they had cocktails in the cookbook,
right?) or you are just strolling down memory lane, Cooking with Mickey around
Our World has a ton to offer!
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