EPCOT Food and Wine Festival

[SanFran88]

The Food and Wine Festival at EPCOT (Disney World) is slated for 1 October to 14 November. Though they don't seem to have announced the exact schedule yet, the events (Party for the Senses, Chef dinners, etc.) are supposed to go on sale at 0700 20 July. We went last year and had a wonderful time. Is anyone else planning on attending this year?

[chefdg]

The pastry chef where I work is going. He is pretty excited about it.

[Susan in FL]

I plan to go. I've attended two of the past three years. Thanks for the dates!

[robyn]

One word of warning. We spent a day there last year - and I thought a lot of the people attending were just totally rude. When there was a food exhibit - one person would sit down an hour in advance - have 10 friends put bags or purses on 10 chairs - then the 10 friends would go wander around until 2 minutes before "show time" since they had "reserved" the seats. The same thing happened at the concerts. So people who arrived 20 minutes in advance (like us) couldn't get seats. We did manage to see one food demo because we sat in our chairs for an hour waiting for it to start. It was ok - but not worth the wait. Disney usually handles things better than this. We complained - so perhaps you won't encounter this practice this year. Robyn

[bouquetduvin]

Hi everyone, Just wanted to introduce myself to the board. I am a new wine distributor and importer in NJ, NY and now Florida. I just started selling wine to Epcot. My wines are in the Canadian restaurant in Epcot at Le Cellier, also Roy's in Tampa and some locations in Palm Beach. Right now I specialize in Canadian wines in Florida. Vineyards are Cave Spring Cellars, Peller Estates and Konzelmann.

[FL Heat]

A reason to finagle a night off from cooking and a trip to Roy's :) (I've been trying for a couple of weeks now) Thanks, and we'll look for your wines!

The Food & Wine Festival is just before our season passes run out, so we might go as spectators, but wouldn't know until much closer to the event time. Thank you for the heads-up, though, it sounds interesting (I love the flower & garden event they have every year).

Diana (St Pete, FL)

[Steve Klc]

We're returning to Epcot this year, Tony, we'll be there the weekend of October 15th: Colleen and I are doing the Party of the Senses on Saturday and then on Sunday a new wrinkle they've added just this year--something called "Sweet Sundays" I think. It's for 75 people--a reserved demo/master class kind of event just featuring pastry chefs--where we lead a class, hand out recipes, answer questions and then serve 3 of our desserts to the guests. I think it's a fresh concept and allows guests to interact a little more with the pastry chefs than they have the opportunity to at the Party of the Senses, where it can be pretty hectic. (I'm also promising right here to make my class special and pack a lot into it.)

Bouquetduvin--that's great news, will you be doing a Party of the Senses this year--if so, which weekends? I hope you bring an icewine. (We also eat at Le Cellier every year; supposedly it isn't considered one of Disney's fine dining options, but the quality of food and wine there is tremendous, the chef, Brian Piasecki, does a great job.) A few years ago my wife and I did the dessert for an Inniskillin wine dinner during the Food & Wine Festival--I'm glad to hear more Canadian wines are available now in the US distribution channels. They're still vastly under-appreciated here.

As far as the outside stuff goes, the booths and little tents and the masses of sometimes rude people, I'm not sure that's going to change much--to get the full Disney experience and something special, you have to do the wine dinners, the Party of the Senses, the reserved wine tastings and, hopefully, spend a "Sweet Sunday" with a pastry chef or two.

Is anyone aware of any chef or restaurant developments at Disney since last year?

[robyn]

We're returning to Epcot this year, Tony, we'll be there the weekend of October 15th: Colleen and I are doing the Party of the Senses on Saturday and then on Sunday a new wrinkle they've added just this year--something called "Sweet Sundays" I think.  It's for 75 people--a reserved demo/master class kind of event just featuring pastry chefs--where we lead a class, hand out recipes, answer questions and then serve 3 of our desserts to the guests...

If you get an official schedule - it would be nice if you could post it here. The info on the Disney website is usually posted late - and it isn't comprehensive. I like the "Sweet Sunday" idea (I'm a big fan of desserts - and they don't have to be sweet). Robyn

[bouquetduvin]

Steve: I haven't been notified yet if there are any of Canadian events, but I know Le Cellier is having a three wine pairing menu. The wines they have just added from my portfolio are from Cave Spring Cellars in Jordan, Ontario. Cave Spring has an amazing Late harvest Rielsing, called Indian Summer Riesling, tastes like an Auslese, but without the Ice Wine price, also makes a great zabayon sauce. For anyone interested, on my website, www.bouquetduvin.com, I maintain a full database of all my wines, including tasting notes and there is plenty of information to be had, e.g. information on wine regions, consumer tips, etc.

[SanFran88]

We will be there the first two weeks in October. We have Party for the Senses on the 2 and 9th, and I will probably do the Sweet Sunday on the 3d. I think Blue Zoo opened since last year; we went a few months ago when we were down and I thought it, as well as Shula's, were pretty good.

[abramer]

Hello!

This is my first eGullet post.

I thought you might be interested in seeing the following:

WDW Update from MousePlanet - Food and Wine Fest

MousePlanet is a nice unofficial Disney site, and they're generally on the money as far as these types of posts are concerned. This particular post has a lot of information about the specific events, and costs. There are still a number of "TBA"

items, but some information is better than none.

Enjoy!

[Susan in FL]

Thank you, Abramer. I have bookmarked that site. And welcome to eG.

[wnissen]

Hurricane Jeanne and the rather shocking rudeness of Disney Cruise Lines meant that my wife and I happened to be visiting Disneyworld during the Food and Wine Festival. We had a blast, and during one day at Epcot managed to try at least one item from each of the 25 or so country booths. My only "insider" tip is that they have a soft opening of the booths the night before with shorter lines. We were dining at Le Cellier that night, and so had a couple "amuses" before our supper. Bouquet du vin, I really liked the Cave Springs semi-dry. Very good with food, and delicious. I am also a big fan of Maudite, if you import that as well. I'm embarassed to say that I thought it was Belgian.

My vote for most pleasurable and surreal experience at Epcot Food and Wine goes to sipping a glass of Inniskillin Okanagan Vidal Icewine from a plastic cup while watching a fantastic fireworks and laser show. Now that's living!

Walt

[Susan in FL]

Walt, thanks for the post. We are trying to decide when to go to the festival, and I was going to post a note asking who had been yet. I'm wondering how it is going, and if there is anything remarkably different this year.

Sorry, but what did you mean by a soft opening of the booths the night before with shorter lines? I was a little confused by that tip, since the festival is 45 days long.

Yes, Illuminations is great while sipping!

[bouquetduvin]

Hurricane Jeanne and the rather shocking rudeness of Disney Cruise Lines meant that my wife and I happened to be visiting Disneyworld during the Food and Wine Festival. We had a blast, and during one day at Epcot managed to try at least one item from each of the 25 or so country booths. My only "insider" tip is that they have a soft opening of the booths the night before with shorter lines. We were dining at Le Cellier that night, and so had a couple "amuses" before our supper. Bouquet du vin, I really liked the Cave Springs semi-dry. Very good with food, and delicious. I am also a big fan of Maudite, if you import that as well. I'm embarassed to say that I thought it was Belgian.

My vote for most pleasurable and surreal experience at Epcot Food and Wine goes to sipping a glass of Inniskillin Okanagan Vidal Icewine from a plastic cup while watching a fantastic fireworks and laser show. Now that's living!

Walt

←

Hi Walt:

I'm so glad you enjoyed Le Cellier and the Cave Spring Semi Dry Riesling. I represent several Vineyards from Canada, and by far, Cave Spring has the top Riesling. Next time you have a chance try their PInot Noir, CSV Chardonnay and their dessert wines, they are quite special and a great value for the money. Thanks for your feedback. Last time I was at Le Cellier in August, I spent an entire evening in the dining room greating diners and in the kitchen with the Chef and wait staff. The food and the quality is first rate there, so I am proud my wines are there too. Basically, it's intersting that when presenting a wine to this restaurant, it is tasted by several levels of Beverage Management before it is approved. Thanks again for your feedback.

[Steve Klc]

Not sure Tony, Susan, if you have or have not gone to Epcot yet, but we just returned from our weekend down there. Besides the Sweet Sunday event, which was not that heavily promoted in advance, there wasn't anything that struck me as "remarkably" different, though the big Saturday Party for the Senses event seemed bigger, maybe 800+ people instead of 6-700? I had so many exceptional dishes on my night, which was october 16th, the favorite of which was by Ximena Mariscal from the Maricu Centro de Artes Culinarias in Mexico: huitlacoche and filet mignon tucked inside a crepe with corn souffle and chile poblano sauce. Hiro Sone's cod (Terra, Napa) was also excellent, so, too was John Mailk's dish (33 Liberty, Greenville, SC) and Melissa Kelly's fish and chips (Primo, Rockland, Maine.) I'm sure there were other excellent dishes which we didn't have a chance to try, since we did a dessert this year with an ice cream and a couple of a la minute components, we couldn't walk around as much.

However, bigger doesn't necessarily mean worse--they must have hired a designer this year because the space was extremely well laid-out, there was exceptional flow, more seating in smaller, more organic and intimate groupings, it was more colorful and beautiful, several acts from Cirque du Soleil performed throughout the evening in a central stage. From our perspective as pastry chefs they also improved our lot--they split us into two dessert areas with brand new stations, one at either end of the space, instead of like last year huddling us all together in a cramped circle, and they also moved us to the side of the space which had all the refrigerators, instead of placing us on the opposite wall, which made it much easier to get another 100 desserts when we needed them. (We have some pictures, which I haven't seen yet.)

My feeling remains unchanged: that while sampling piecemeal from the booths outside is nice, and fighting to snag a free seat in an occasional demo can be nice, the better experience is to focus around the Party for the Senses, where you can talk with the chefs, sample the dishes which appeal to you, watch them cook, explore wines, and my recommendation is not to go outside to see the fireworks that night--go another evening--that night stay inside the pavilion and use that extra 30 minutes or so to pursue more food and wine pairings. Party for the Senses is really special, it's a value-priced bargain culinarily-speaking and it amazes me that the folks in Central Florida food media don't seem to appreciate it properly. But then they don't seem to even appreciate how good on-property restaurants like California Grill and Le Cellier are nor how consummate and professional many of the Disney FOH/BOH teams are, either, so maybe there's still a not-so subtle Disney bias thing at work.

We ate out all over the parks (one of the nice visiting chef perks are coupons, which take care of food; we pay full price for all wine) and this time we ate twice each at our usual suspects, California Grill, Flying Fish and Le Cellier. None have lost a step, with the Grill clearly ahead, but if anything Le Cellier has moved solidly alongside Flying Fish. (The night we ate at Le Cellier, when the chefs allowed us to sneak in at 9:30 despite the fact that they take their last seating at 9PM, they had had 600 covers on the books for that evening, a Saturday, which began with a 4PM first seating. I can't tell you how impressive it is to do that kind of volume, and yet provide that kind of care and attention to each dish, for the price they charge.) Now that we've been guests for a few years in a row, the thing we've realized over time is there are deep rosters of talented unknown people who work their butts off--and they're still in place or move say from the Grill to Le Cellier or vice versa, still on the lines, still folding that free-form lasagne just so before it goes to the pass. We now know their faces, their efficient body language, from years past--old professional colleagues who have served us incredibly well in the past and continue to do so, none of whom will ever rise beyond this station or ever become a great chef or a celebrity chef themselves. But central floridians and all those who visit annually, like us, are very fortunate they remain there, just doing their thing as if it were their first week on the job. (Not that this commitment is necessarily uniform or consistent, we had disappointing lunches in the Morocco restaurant and the English pub restaurant, which I think was called Rose & Crown.)

If any eGulleteer goes to the remaining weeks of the Food & Wine festival, my tip is to make reservations for the Ca Grill on at least one night and ask specifically to sit at the chef's counter--those two seats will be your ticket inside a still great restaurant. Not the 4 seats at the sushi counter, the 2 seats at the chef's counter. You'll see what I mean. Oh, and the two new sushi dishes at the Grill are very nice: an eel roll called, I think, Snake in the grass, and also the tuna in three different styles dish.

My vote for most pleasurable and surreal experience at Epcot Food and Wine goes to sipping a glass of Inniskillin Okanagan Vidal Icewine from a plastic cup while watching a fantastic fireworks and laser show. Now that's living!

Inniskillin, it turned out, sponsored our pastry chef Sweet Sunday event, which I didn't know far enough in advance. As a result, not a single one of my desserts (two of them were chocolate-based) that night went with the wine. So my group appreciated the wine on its own, an incredible liquid dessert in a glass, and then moved on to the plated desserts. Tony, if you did Sweet Sunday on the 3rd, was that Roland Mesnier? I'm interested in feedback about this new concept and also if others found their PFTS enjoyable...the festival is longer this year, there are so many different chefs flying in for a short time and then leaving, the demos probably varied a bit as anything in life, the best one can really offer is a snapshot of what their little part of the festival was like, so I hope everyone else's was as good as ours.

[flacoman]

I've been going for the last several years ,and it's a blast . I'm actually meeting the in laws this time out there . Couldn't get into California Grill, but Bern's stands ready to ease the disappointment . My personal faves include the cheese soup and salmon at Canada, the raclette at Switzerland and those lamb chops from down under. Chile seems to serve up good stuff also. I'll be leaving thursday so , look for a rundown sunday night-mondayish.

[bouquetduvin]

We're returning to Epcot this year, Tony, we'll be there the weekend of October 15th: Colleen and I are doing the Party of the Senses on Saturday and then on Sunday a new wrinkle they've added just this year--something called "Sweet Sundays" I think.  It's for 75 people--a reserved demo/master class kind of event just featuring pastry chefs--where we lead a class, hand out recipes, answer questions and then serve 3 of our desserts to the guests.  I think it's a fresh concept and allows guests to interact a little more with the pastry chefs than they have the opportunity to at the Party of the Senses, where it can be pretty hectic. (I'm also promising right here to make my class special and pack a lot into it.)

Bouquetduvin--that's great news, will you be doing a Party of the Senses this year--if so, which weekends?  I hope you bring an icewine.  (We also eat at Le Cellier every year; supposedly it isn't considered one of Disney's fine dining options, but the quality of food and wine there is tremendous, the chef, Brian Piasecki, does a great job.)  A few years ago my wife and I did the dessert for an Inniskillin wine dinner during the Food & Wine Festival--I'm glad to hear more Canadian wines are available now in the US distribution channels.  They're still vastly under-appreciated here.

As far as the outside stuff goes, the booths and little tents and the masses of sometimes rude people, I'm not sure that's going to change much--to get the full Disney experience and something special, you have to do the wine dinners, the Party of the Senses, the reserved wine tastings and, hopefully, spend a "Sweet Sunday" with a pastry chef or two.

Is anyone aware of any chef or restaurant developments at Disney since last year?

←

Steve - As an FYI, Cave Spring wines are available in many shops in NJ and in some selected stores in FL., in Clearwater and Wyoming.

[john b]

We didn't make it down for the F & W Festival, but we were in WDW in May and dined at Flying Fish, California Grill and Le Cellier. All were great. Le Cellier had a "chef's thunder" special--three courses for about $35--salmon cakes, dry aged strip steak and dessert sampler (whiskey cake, maple creme brulee, raspberry sorbet). I'd bet that it's the best dinner deal in all of WDW.

Flying Fish is VERY kid friendly while at the same time, they provide a level of food and service you'd expect at "adult" restaurants.

CG--the only thing better than the view is the food.

[flacoman]

Made it back; lines were hellish,food was quite good. Luckily I rented a scooter to ease the wear and tear on my bum knee. Since I could sit in line easily and had a basket on the front of the scooter ,I became a "chuck wagon" for the rest of my group. EPCOT needs to find a way to make the lines less painful . Larger booths , more of them perhaps? Bern's OTOH was splendid, no rushing , no bustle in the Tchelllicheff (sp)

Room. My 6 y/o daughter was an absolute doll for the 3 1/2 hours it took to graze out way through dinner . Questions , anyone ?

peace

Jorge

[Susan in FL]

We didn't make it to the festival this year. Thanks to everybody who did and posted about it. At least we were able to read about it here!

[Tonyy13]

Chef Klc, thought I would drop a line to tell you that when you did that ice wine dessert, I was a lowly apprentice sent from Johnson and Wales to work and do mise en place for the F&W chefs, and I got to work with you and your wife, I can still taste the pear gelee that you made, and it was the first time that I thought about doing something like that. I have recently returned to Orlando to teach at the local LCB school, and we use gelees all the time! Thought you might just like to know that even after 4 years, you still inspire!!

As far as the Innuskillen (sp?) Ice wine, I would urge anyone to try it, it is awesome, a perfect balance of acid and sugar, with a complex flavor. Food and wine this year was great, finishing off w/ Rick Bayless and his daughter, who just co-authored a book together about their travels and the food that they encountered while trotting the globe (must be nice!!!) Anyway, hope that you all had fun at the F&W Festival!!

[SanFran88]

Not sure Tony, Susan, if you have or have not gone to Epcot yet, but we just returned from our weekend down there.  Tony, if you did Sweet Sunday on the 3rd, was that Roland Mesnier? I'm interested in feedback about this new concept and also if others found their PFTS enjoyable...the festival is longer this year, there are so many different chefs flying in for a short time and then leaving, the demos probably varied a bit as anything in life, the best one can really offer is a snapshot of what their little part of the festival was like, so I hope everyone else's was as good as ours.

←

Steve,

Sorry, I just noticed this. We did the two Party for the Senses on the 2nd and the 9th. For various reasons we didn't go on the 3rd to the Sweet Sunday event, which was Chef Mesnier. I was very bummed; I especially wanted to talk to him about his rather unusual Pate Sucre in Dessert University. I thought the physical layout of the PftS this year was much better than before, as you mentioned. I remember the scrum last year once 600 people all descended on the little dessert encampment. The pastry chefs looked like they were in a scene from an old western with the wagons circled. I thought the 2nd was good, but oddly the dishes on the 9th were almost universally better. Just a good night I guess. We weren't able to spend as much "fun" time as normal as we were also dealing with helping my in-laws fix hurricane damage.

We did go to California Grill twice and Artist Point and Jiko's once each. Didn't make it to Flying Fish. I have only eaten once at La Cellier a number of years ago. We will have to add it to our list on your recommendation.

Party for the Senses is, I think, an unbelievable value. It really is a great night and they have done a nice job of expanding some things (scotch tasting this year along with the wine for instance) and adjusting the physical layout and entertainment. I don't have enough experience with the other special dinners to comment; I went to one last year and wasn't thrilled, but obviously a lot depends on the chef and the menu in question. Ours was a chocolate in every course dinner, and some of the dishes were a bit forced for my taste. But that's just me.

BTW, my wife still thinks the rice pudding you did last year at PftS is the single best dessert she has ever had.