We had an amazing time at the Festival! Saturday we went to 2 of the free cooking demonstrations - one by the Executive Chef for the Disney Studios and one by Amy Jurist. The Disney chef (I can't remember her name, sorry!) made Ricotta Gnocci with a parmesean based broth. Everyone in teh audience got a tasting sample of it.
Amy Jurist made candied bacon and this inverted baked potato...she laced bacon to make this "cup" in a muffin pan, and then filled it with the potato/sour cream/chives, etc. Both were absolutely delicious!
We showed up for both demonstrations about 15 mins prior to the start and had no problem getting in. But if it's a busier weekend, you may want to get there earlier.
We also did the wine walks for Italy and California. 3 people is the best number, b/c then you can try all wines at each station. DH and I had 2 at each station, sharing tastes...we really enjoyed these! They were about $10/person, but well worth it imo. There was also a beer walk that DH enjoyed a lot. I'm not a huge fan of beer though.
We had lunch one day at the Festival Showplace. DH had (and enjoyed!) the beef sliders. I had the cheddar cheese soup in the bread bowl. YUUUUUUUM. We finished with the Ghiardelli profiterole, which was also quite yummy. These are tapas sized portions, not full meals, but they were very yummy. I really wanted the recipe to teh cheddar cheese soup! (The chef said it was online somewhere but I haven't found it yet).
We finished the festival by going to one signature event (pre-registration required)--Sweet Sunday on May 2nd, with Richard Ruskell. If you watch food network challenge and have seen any of the cake competitions, you've probably watched him compete. There was a breakfast buffet (fresh fruit, assorted pastries, 3 cheese quiche, and sausage) and we were each offered glasses of Iron Horse Fairy Tale Cuvee or Magicale - 2 sparkling wines exclusive to Disney. They were VERY generous with refilling our glasses throughout the 2 hr. event. DH and I probably had 4 or so glasses of Magicale each (14.50/glass in the park restaurants). worth the price of admission itself
Chef Ruskell made 3 strawberry based creations for us- berliners, tres leches cake with strawberry topping, and strawberry parfait (served in a push up pop!) We got recipes for all of these, as well as full portions of them for tasting. He walked us through the preparation of all of them, and answered questions along the way as well.
This was probably DH and I's favorite part of the whole trip. The whole experience was just awesome, teh food was delicious, and we got our picture with the Chef after as well!
We have nothing but awesome things to say about the festival. This was a compromise for us, since DL is closer, and we've always wanted to do Epcot's F&W festival....now we REALLY want to go to Epcot!!!
Hope that helps!
The rivers have been refilled, and I think everything was on schedule to reopen as early as this weekend, except the Mark Twain. We're going to Medieval Times on Friday night, but hopefuly we'll make it back in time to see the fireworks. Here's hoping for fairly low crowds for us!
