When Disney fans reminisce about the golden days of park hopping, the conversation usually turns to extinct attractions: soaring on the Skyway, plunging into the depths of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, or taking an ambitious journey into the future aboard Horizons.
Yet for so many of us, our most vivid vacation memories aren’t tied to a track or an animatronic. They’re tied to the scent of freshly pressed waffles in the morning, the frosty clink of a tiki glass after dark, or that one sweet afternoon snack you made a beeline for year after year.
Theme park journalists and Disney historians Carly Caramanna and Julie Tremaine understand that deep sensory pull. In their new book, The Unofficial Disney Parks Retro Cookbook: 60+ Nostalgic Recipes and Stories of Yesteryear (out October 13 from Harper Celebrate), the duo has compiled over six decades of lost Disney culinary lore—recreating everything from 1950s opening-day fare to cult-favorite bites that departed far too soon.
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The Irresistible Nostalgia of Long-Lost Bites
Carly Caramanna
For both authors, food isn’t just fuel between Lightning Lanes—it is the memory itself.
“Some of life’s best moments happen over shared meals, whether that’s a special evening at a fine dining restaurant with a certain someone or friends having sandwiches together on a perfect beach day,” Tremaine explains. “Food adds to so many great moments and adds to those memories. Carly and I have had many of them together at Disney parks, everything from an incredible multi-course dinner at Monsieur Paul in EPCOT to toasting many a late-night zombie or Hippo-potto-mai-tai at Trader Sam’s at Disneyland. When we first signed our contract for this book, we sat down to Rat Pizzas at PizzeRizzo in Hollywood Studios. As much as I remember my joy in that moment, I also remember the really delicious pizza. I don’t just remember the restaurant and the company and how I felt, I remember all of that moment’s flavors too.”
Caramanna agrees that taste and scent can unlock moments in time faster than an old photo album:
“I think it’s often overlooked just how large of a role food can play in our memories, and that holds especially true at Disney parks,” Caramanna says. “Our memories have a funny way of recalling a moment, and just one smell of something familiar can instantly bring you back to a happy time. It’s comforting. The Kungaloosh from the Adventurers Club is one such bygone sip for me. One taste of the cocktail and a wave of emotions comes over me. I wish I could go back in time and feel exactly as I did in that moment with my family. I also wish I could bring my now husband to experience it as well as it closed before we ever met and got to enjoy it together.”
Inside, the cookbook resurrects a lineup of park legends that felt lost to history:
- The Giant Carrot Cake Cookie from the Writer’s Stop, back when Disney’s Hollywood Studios was still Disney-MGM Studios
- Taco Salad in a Ta-Cup from Casa de Fritos in Frontierland (the actual birthplace of the Dorito)
- Lamb Chops with Mint Jelly from Disneyland’s mid-century fine-dining landmark, the Red Wagon Inn
- Warm Goat Cheese Dip from Restaurant Marrakesh in EPCOT’s Morocco pavilion
- Walt Disney’s Own Favorites, including his go-to hearty canned-chili recipe and his evening drink of choice, the Scotch Mist
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From Mid-Century Classics to the Infamous “Blue Shrimp”
Harper Collins
While the pages are rich with mid-century gems, the authors also made sure to honor modern Disney history—including dishes from the ambitious, short-lived Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser, which welcomed travelers for just one year before powering down.
“I love how everyone’s Disney journey is different,” Caramanna notes. “Like for me, my jumping off point was the theme parks in the ‘80s and ‘90s, and so those places in particular hold a very special place in my heart. It was really important for us to include something for everyone.”
That philosophy meant preserving modern culinary experiments alongside 60-year-old originals.
“Without a doubt, we had to include Starcruiser,” Caramanna says. “I like to think of this book as telling the history of Walt Disney World and Disneyland through the lens of food… Its grand scale is something to applaud. And even if its fate was likely destined from the start, there’s no doubt that it demonstrated that Disney is willing to take risks and push the envelope. And that also holds true for its culinary offerings, which were unanimously applauded by cruisers. I don’t think we’ll be forgetting the infamous ‘blue shrimp’ anytime soon. It’s one of those dishes that become the stuff of legends and will be talked about for years to come.”
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How the Magic of Park Dining Has Shifted
Carly Caramanna
Of course, Disney dining looks very different today than it did when guests wore suits and dresses to dinner at the Disneyland Hotel. Today’s menus are engineered for viral social clips just as much as flavor.
“I think the biggest shift has been how we engage with food. Today, the phone eats first,” Caramanna shares. “And undoubtedly social media has played a role in how the restaurant experience has shifted. But, it’s not all bad. Food is designed to be ingested by both the eater and by the captive social media audience. I like to find the good in that.”
That constant digital appetite keeps Disney chefs on their toes.
“Menus in the parks are constantly revamped these days and I think that stems from that pressure to show off something new,” Caramanna explains. “And that must be exciting for creatives who are constantly presented with a new challenge. And for us as guests, that means we get to try something new and exciting seemingly constantly.”
For Tremaine, however, if she could step into a time machine, she’d head straight for the era before Disney even owned its flagship hotel.
“My time machine would be going straight back to the earliest days of the Disneyland Hotel,” Tremaine says, recalling spots like the Gourmet Restaurant and the Monorail Bar. “Walt Disney ran out of money for the hotel… so he asked his friend Jack Wrather to build a hotel on the property. That era of the Disneyland Hotel, before it was Disney’s property, tends to be overlooked. To be able to experience it myself firsthand would be incredible.”
Still, whether you’re savoring high-tech storytelling at a brand-new cruise lounge or whipping up a batch of vintage Casa de Fritos tacos in your own kitchen on a Tuesday night, the underlying joy remains identical.
“Regardless of when your Disney journey began,” Caramanna says, “food has always been used as a form of storytelling.”
The Unofficial Disney Parks Retro Cookbook by Carly Caramanna and Julie Tremaine, published by Harper Celebrate, is available for now on Amazon or HarperCollins.
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