Ashley Craft grew up in Anaheim so close to the park, she fell asleep to the sound of the fireworks each night. Eventually, she ended up working at Disney World. So when the uber Disney fan began writing her Ashley Crafted blog in 2017, naturally she gravitated toward the Mouse.
“Basically, I was looking for an outlet to share different Disney information that I had, whether that’s planning ideas or tricks and tips, fun facts, trivia or recipes,” she said. “Of all the blog posts, the (copycat) recipes took off.”
Now she’s the author of “The Unofficial Disney Parks Cookbook” (Adams Media, $22), 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 back-ordered 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. Especially now during the pandemic, Disney has really upped their sharing of recipes online. People are calling (them) 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 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. Those kinds of things are not possible in a home kitchen, period.
Q: Can you give me an example?
A: The way Dole Whip is made at the Disney parks: Dole has a powder that you mix with water and put into an industrial ice cream machine. Obviously you are not going to make a powder at home. So when Disney put out their official “Dole Whip Recipe” just a few months ago, it wasn’t the Dole Whip recipe, it was 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 fresh made.
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): approximating how to create the flavor and visual profiles in your home kitchen.
Q: It surprised me that some park-goers 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. People are crazy. What surprised me the most? Just how many treats Disney serves. I ended up having to trim back because there’s so many. I mean, we’re talking about six parks just in the U.S.
Q: 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 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: Did you feed these dishes to fans to get their opinions or did you just trust your palate?
A: My family was my taste test. I did almost all of the recipe testing during the pandemic — in April and the first half of May.
Q: Aw! So you brought the park to your family, 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.
