Cost of Kosher meals at Tony's Town Square

[TheRustyScupper]

I made an ADR and called to order kosher meals. Thing is, they had no idea about the price

1) Kosher meal prices are changed frequently, and are usually slightly higher than menu prices.
2) WDW has no provision to make/prepare Kosher.
. . . the guest tells WDW ahead of time (at least 24-hrs notice) they need a Kosher meal
. . . WDW orders the meal from an off-site vendor
. . . the vendor delivers the meal to the restaurant, in heat-maintaining containers
. . . the restaurant usually tries to not reheat the meal
. . . due to rules for heating/cooking meat and dairy, sometimes the restaurant will not attempt to reheat
. . . this means, in most cases, the meat and dairy meat components could not be reheated in a microwave at the same time
. . . the SERVER delivers it to the guest's table
3) Food costs to the kitchen change often, and the outside eatery has to still make a profit.
. . . The outside eatery does not have to conform to the set Disney retail prices
. . . They can increase/decrease their price to Disney.
. . . Disney then charges the guest as needed.

NOTE: For those not experienced with Kosher Kitchens, there are rules that must be followed. The equipment, utensils, storage, tableware, table linens, and labor costs to prepare Kosher are high for mass-market eateries, such as those at Disney. So, many eateries sub-contract the food prep. We have interest in two restaurants and make allowances for Kosher in one of them in the same manner as WDW.

 

[wilkeliza]

I'm going to chime in from left field and just say "Yay" to this great question. I don't keep kosher, but it's nice to know the option's there. Though I am a little surprised Disney doesn't have an on-site kashered/supervised kitchen facility of its own.

The real reason would be the cost of maintaining a full kosher kitchen compared to the actual amount of kosher meals they serve. There is only about 14-16 million of us in the entire world. Only a percentage of that keeps kosher and even a smaller portion keeps kosher 100% of the time. On top of that I would imagine that it is even a smaller percentage of families that keep kashrut that actually would go to Disney as well. I'd bet Disney probably serves 1 family a day that keeps follows kashrut to the point that they follow all the rules (preparation being the big one discussed here). It would make no sense money or time wise to have an entire facility that would have to be staffed and maintained when they can use an outside cater. Setting up a kosher kitchen isn't just paying for the facility it is also paying for chefs and a crew to deliver the food that is all versed in kashrut as well as paying the fees to maintain the kosher certification.

 

[Lisa F]

Often only high-end hotels such as The Four Seasons and Ritz-Carlton have kosher certified kitchens; however, these are used only for large events and banquets, not on a daily basis. It makes sense for a variety of reasons that Disney would contract the meals to an offsite purveyor with a history and understanding of the kosher tradition such as Webermans. So much more to kosher than just an image or label.

they are also in areas where there are large observant jewish populations and they have call for it and can justify the expense. There are hotels in the NY area that turn all kosher for passover for the week of passover and observant jews basically move in there for the week and eat all of their meals there rather than koshering their own homes... but that would not work in an area without a lot of affluent observant jews to pay for it!