5 years into the mission, Disney’s dig into plant-based dining continues
It’s been the better part of five years since Walt Disney World made vegan options — real dishes, not just cobbled-together sides and salads — a mission throughout the realm. It’s a move we speculated, in late 2019, served as a tipping point for plant-based dining, and one that Cheryl Dolven, senior manager of health and wellness and environmentality for Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, says is an undisputed success story.
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“It’s been a delight for our guests,” Dolven says, “Those who lead a plant-based lifestyle and also those who are looking for a new and exciting culinary adventure.”
Variety across the parks and resorts, Dolven says, has been at the heart of their achievement in proliferating all things plant-based.
“That means familiar foods that are designed to be approachable, like the spaghetti and Impossible meatballs at Tony’s Town Square or the Impossible nachos at the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater … to adventurous items where you might not expect them, like the soba noodle salad in a waffle bowl at Fairfax Fare or the ancient grains stew at Citricos.”
Others, too, such as the “from the harvest” potjie option at Sanaa, located inside Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge, are naturally vegan items that slide easily into the Cinderella’s glass slipper of plant-based fare.
There are no special boxes, other than the obvious, that Disney chefs must tick as they develop new items, says Dolven.
“The idea was simply to create dishes that looked great, sounded great and tasted great, and our culinary team definitely delivered on that,” she says. “The challenges, largely, have fallen on the dessert side, where ingredients like butter, eggs and milk all play a really functional role.”
A quick, concentrated glance at the options for this year’s Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival (already underway and running through June 2) and you’ll see that pastry chefs have sailed over any such hurdles.
The field has exploded with sophisticated plant-based offerings. Cases in point: the lemon tart with lemon curd, blood orange fluid gel, aquafaba meringes and raspberry powder, available at the aptly named Citrus Blossom outdoor kitchen and the all-new coconut-chocolate flancocho, a chocolate cake/coconut custard offering that’s topped with passionfruit caramel. You’ll find this one between France and Morocco at La Isla Fresca.
All across the Disney empire, says Dolven, pastry chefs are bringing the plant-based power to the plate.
“Sponge cherry cake, coconut pineapple bread pudding, banana cream pie, cinnamon sugar doughnuts…” she rattles off. The list is extremely long and delightful.”
Dolven marvels at the seeming ease with which chefs come up with ideas and their collaboration as they taste, give notes and help one another refine their dishes. “And the layer that I think that’s unique to Disney is making sure not only that the dish is great tasting, but that it’s something that can be executed well every day.”
The fire of plant-based fare is burning so hot, in fact, that even at Disney Springs, at venues both Disney-owned and operated and those that aren’t, options abound, from vegan bratwurst at B.B. Wolf’s Sausage Co. and Kung Pao cauliflower at City Works Eatery & Pour House to doughnuts and lattes at Everglazed Donuts & Cold Brew and vegan paella at Jaleo by José Andrés.
“Plant-based dining really is here to stay,” says Dolven. “We see it across the industry. It’s guided by the desire to eat healthier. It’s guided by the desire to make sustainable choices that are good for the planet. But, it’s also about innovation, not only in recipes and doing exciting things with ingredients that are inherently plant-based, but in the creation of new plant-based ingredients.”
Meat substitutes and cheese substitutes, she says, are continually refined, as well as other products, like bean and sesame milks and plant-based seafood alternatives.
Meantime, you can snag a plate of lumpia with plant-based pork and enjoy a vegan spin around the Flower & Garden-decked World Showcase and plot your own culinary course for adventure and marvel, like Dolven, at what five years of plant-based progress tastes like.
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