DISNEY FA N S ARE EATING IT UP
Bestselling ‘Parks Cookbook’ brings the Dole Whip, churros and more home
She grew up in Anaheim, Calif., so close to the park that she fell asleep to the sound of the fireworks each night. Eventually she ended up working at Disney World.
Ashley Craft always loved all things Disney, so when she began to write a blog, naturally she gravitated in that direction. “I started it in 2017 and basically I was just looking for an outlet to share different Disney information that I had, whether that’s planning ideas or tricks and tips that I had, fun facts and trivia or recipes. Of all the blog posts, the recipes took off,” she said.
Her copycat recipes were especially popular, and now she’s the author of “The Unofficial Disney Parks Cookbook,” a collection of 100 dishes served at the parks. She has no formal culinary training, just a love of sharing her successes in the kitchen to help fans get the Disney food experience at home. They’re loving it: It’s made the USA Today bestseller list, it’s been backordered on Amazon for weeks and has sold tens of thousands of copies already.
We caught up with her to find out how the book came about.
Q Disney does not like to reveal its secrets. So how did you get bold enough to write this?
A
Great question. I’ve had a lot of people asking me similar questions because, especially now during the pandemic, Disney has really upped their sharing of recipes online. They have shared a lot of the recipes that people are calling the official Disney recipes, but they aren’t really — they’re just recipes that Disney has decided to share that are also copycat recipes.
Q
So if they’re coming from Disney, why are they not official?
A
The foods that they make in the parks are typically made by third parties. A lot of them come prepackaged or made in a factory. And then it’s prepared on-site. So those kinds of things are not possible to be made in a home kitchen, period.
Q
Can you give me an example?
A
The way Dole Whip is made at the Disney parks is that Dole has made a powder that you mix with water and put it into an industrial ice cream machine. Obviously you are not going to make a powder at home. That’s not possible. So when Disney put out their official “Dole Whip Recipe” just a few months ago, it wasn’t the Dole Whip recipe, it was just them creating a copycat for you to make at home.
Q
I get it now. A colleague who covers Disney regularly has always said she thinks the churros come out of a frozen package. Yours are freshmade.
A
Totally. I’ve had people tell me consistently that my churros are better because they are fresh — I mean, you’re making them from scratch at home. So they’re really good. I’m doing the exact same thing that Disney does [in releasing recipes to the public] and that is just approximating how to create the flavor profiles and the visual profiles in your home kitchen. So we do it the exact same way, anything that Disney puts out and anything that I put out, pretty much the same.
Q
Did you envision parents and kids cooking together, moms and dads cooking for kids, or fans making these? Who is this book for?
A
Definitely all of that. I have three children. I have a 7½-year-old, a 6-year-old today — happy birthday — and I have a 3-year-old and they help me in the kitchen all the time. I think that these recipes, a lot of them, are family-friendly. There’s a lot of fun ways that you can incorporate your children into that process with you. I also definitely made this for fans. I hope that people read the introduction that I wrote, read the chapter headings and all that kind of stuff, because I put a lot of heart into it and it’s really cool facts and trivia.
Q
It surprised me that some parkgoers think the turkey legs are actually emu legs! What surprised you the most while writing this book?
A
An emu leg would be like the size of your torso, not the same size category as a turkey leg. I don’t know, people are crazy. What surprised me the most? Just how many treats Disney serves. My publisher told me that they wanted me to do 100 recipes and I was like, “Oh my gosh, that’s a lot. I’m not even sure if I can come up with 100 items that Disney sells that I would want to do.” But I ended up having to trim back because there’s so many. I mean, we’re talking about six parks here just in the U.S.
Q
And now they’ve come out with all the plantbased stuff. There’s something for everyone and you can eat your way around the parks. Speaking of which, I like that you included colorful maps.
A
It was just for people to have a visual reference and try to associate those foods with those places. I talk a lot in the book about how our memories are associated with our taste. That’s a great way to relive memories of a trip to Disney is by re-creating the food. And I think that having a map really puts you back in the action.
A
I would try to find as much information as I could on what everybody thought about the flavor profiles of something. So if I could find anybody who’s written an Instagram post or a blog post about certain food items. And if they say, “Oh, I really liked the raspberry undertones,” I would try to find all the different flavors that people were identifying as well as ingredient lists. Disney does publish those so if you have an allergy or something like that.
Q
You said you had to trim back. How did you decide which recipes made the final cut?
A
I wrote this book as if I was going to buy it. Like if I saw it on a shelf and I picked it up and flipped through it, what recipes do I want to see in there? I made sure I started with all those things and then tried to find out what everybody else’s favorites were too. I would go online and search “Top 10 Disneyland” or “Top 10 Disney World” to see what kind of lists people were making.
Q
What did you find?
A
Dole Whip, churros, Mickey Pretzel — those are all really, really popular.
Q
The famous corn dog is in there too, right?
A
I had gotten a lot of comments on the corn dogs. People are excited about that. The Galaxy’s Edge recipes have been really popular.
Q
There are some delicious-looking sweets in here like Gaston’s Giant Cinnamon Rolls, JackJack’s Num Num Cookies, strawberry tarts from Epcot in France. Did you feed them to fans to get their opinions or did you just trust your palate?
A
My family was my taste testers. I did almost all of this recipe testing during the pandemic. I was doing this all in April and the first half of May. Everybody was quarantined during that time. I wanted to share it with all my friends, but I couldn’t.
Q
Aw! So you brought the park to your family in a way, just like you’re doing for readers?
A
I have people message me almost every day, thanking me for bringing magic into their kitchens. That’s amazing. It’s so great to see people excited about it and enjoying it like I do.
Q
Well, it sounds like there’s going to be a follow-up.
A
I’m publishing a second book! “The Unofficial Disney Parks Drink Recipe Book” will be coming in 2021.