On this episode, I'm back with our Journey Into Imagination series as I sit down with the author of the unofficial Disney cookbook series, "Ashley Craft". Today's September 13th, 2024, in this episode's 702 of the Main Street Magic Podcast. Hello and welcome to another episode of Main Street Magic. I'm your host, Jeremy Stein, and while I'm not joined by my lovely wife, Rhonda, I will soon be joined by the very talented author, Ashley Craft. But first, make sure you check us out on the web at MainSTmagic.com, as well as follow on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at MainSTmagic. You can also catch us on TikTok at MSN Podcast. You've not done so already, head out to Facebook and search for the Main Street Magic community and ask to join. If you go ahead and hit that subscribe button, you get brand new episodes every Tuesday and Friday. If you're planning that trip to Disneyland or Walt Disney World, you did not get those dining reservations you so desperately wanted. Don't worry because mouse dining removes the frustration of booking Disney dining reservations alerting you when they spot availability for your desired restaurant, date, meal, and time. Visit MSNFriends.com to use this free service. And if you're ready for that next bucket list trip, our trusted partner, MEI Travel, will handle the planning so you can focus on the memories. They offer free vacation planning services and have nearly 20 years of experience creating memorable vacations. Visit MainSTmagic.com/travel for a fee free, no obligation quote, today. I am so excited for today's Journey Into Imagination episode as I have a repeat guest, author Ashley Kraft. And as a child who grew up in Anaheim, California, Ashley could recite the Star Tours Ride by Heart, navigate the park without a map, and fell asleep to the sound of Disneyland fireworks each night in her bedroom. After two internships at Walt Disney World and many, many more visits to the Disney parks, Ashley is now one of the leading experts of Disneyland and Walt Disney World. Her popular blog, Ashley Crafted, is best known for featuring recipes inspired by the Disney park foods to help people recreate that Disney magic right in their own kitchens. Today, Ashley lives with her husband, Danny, and their three kids, Elliot, Hazel, and Clifford, as well as their kittens Figaro and Strider, but she still makes time to visit the mouse. Throw her on Instagram at @unofficialtastetester. Ashley's newest book, The Unofficial Disney Parks Holiday Cookbook, is out now. You can go find it at Target, your local bookstore, or get it on Amazon. All right, let's welcome Ashley Craft to the Main Street Magic Podcast. Ashley, thank you so much and welcome back after a few years to the Main Street Magic Podcast. Thanks. I'm happy to be here. So, normally, I would start this off and I would ask where your love of Disney comes from, but you actually grew up in Anaheim. You could hear fireworks falling asleep at night, so we'll skip over that question. But let's move right into the unofficial cookbooks and how you started cooking and then what led from your love of Disney to deciding to create these unofficial cookbooks for the Disney parks and then even into Universal and all. Mm-hmm. So, I had started in 2017 doing a blog that was kind of all things Disney, because like you said, I grew up in Anaheim, close to Disneyland, and then I did two internships at Walt Disney World. So, I just kind of had a lot of Disney knowledge bursting out of me that I wanted to share. And throughout my blog, it seemed like the posts that we're getting the most love were these copycat recipes that people were really into that. And even though Disney editions has published some Disney parks cookbooks in the past, they have never been like the snacks and treats and, I don't know, like accessible items that people are really looking for. And so I felt like I wanted to write a book that I would want to purchase, like the book that I have been looking for, why shouldn't I be the one to write it. So I just had that idea, I approached some agents and publishers, and it sounded like a lot of people were interested in the same kind of thing. And so, yeah, they took off. And like you said, I ended up writing five Disney cookbooks and one universal cookbook, and they've all been great successes. Wow. It's so cool that you say that you were writing the book that you were looking for, because my brother, who is an author, has wrote two books now, that was his exact phrasing when he talks about his books on a podcast, is that he wrote the book that he would want to read. Now, do you have a, do you have any sort of professional or trained background in cooking, or were you just a home cook who loved to do it? And then that's how you transfer this over. Exactly. Yeah. So I basically have just honed my skills over the years. I've always been big into cooking and especially into recipe creation, which I think is a whole other side of cooking. It's not like so much the culinary side, but more of the creative side, but being able to channel that into a format that people are able to follow. And I think I've always been able to do that, like had a talent for that and didn't realize the application. And yeah, so I definitely don't have any like culinary training, which I think makes the books more, even more accessible to people, because you know I'm not going to be thrown out any, any terms you've never heard of, because I probably never heard of them either. No, I love that you use the word accessible, because it's exactly what I was going to say about your cookbooks and your recipes. I love to cook at home myself. I have several of your cookbooks. I have several of ones that have come straight from Disney. And the ones from Disney are great, but they're not accessible. You know, a lot of those recipes you look at, and you go, "Oh, I want to make my favorite dish." And then you realize it's 30 ingredients long. Yeah, and half of them you haven't heard of, or you don't have on hand, and maybe they're not easy to find. You've really brought, I think, you know, that Disney parks and that food into the home, where, I mean, truly like anyone can cook, you know, with your recipes and everything that you're creating. And you've had a lot of success with those books. Now you have the unofficial Disney parks holiday cookbook. What is the process, and how do you go about choosing those recipes, and then what is that process for creating them until they're at your liking? So this one was actually really interesting, and it was really hard to funnel down into the final recipes, because this isn't just holiday as in, like, Christmas-y holidays. This is every holiday that happens throughout the year. So anybody who's ever been to Disney parks knows it's a party every day of the year, and they're almost always celebrating some kind of holiday. I bet there's very few days on the calendar that aren't celebrating a holiday. So it really does encompass most of the year at Disney parks. So if, and then unlike some other books, I actually also tapped into all six US theme parks as well as the entertainment districts and the resorts and hotels. So it really was like the biggest expanse out of any of the books that I've done. And so yeah, it really was like, I think I was actively researching for two years for this book, because I wanted to hit up all the ticketed holiday events that they had. I wanted to try and be there for as many of the major holidays as possible, and living in Minnesota. Oh my gosh, sorry, I'm having cat, cat moment. No, I know what that's like. He wants to cross in front of the camera. So anyways, I did do a lot of trips to Florida and California in order to taste test the foods, and while I am doing the narrowing down process, I do a lot of research on what people are Instagramming, what people are tick talking about. What's the buzz? Like, I want these recipes to not be the height of the culinary achievement at Disney. It's what recipes you love. What are people talking about? What have people been grabbing for? That's what I want the book to represent. So I do all that research both on the ground and online to find out what people are talking about. That's so smart. Yeah. Give everybody what they want. So not only are you providing a book that you want to read, but of course, what everybody else wants to read. So let's just say you went to the, you know, Mickey's not so scary Halloween party during this process, and you're there and you find a treat or, you know, savory or sweet treat that you absolutely love and you think, all right, I'm going to select this one. You've done the research and you see this is a very popular dish. It's very Instagrammable. What do you do then once you get back home to start recreating that recipe and then how much of, I guess yourself, are you putting into that recipe as well? Or are you trying to really get it as an exact replica of what Disney's doing? So, so all of these recipes are trying to get as close to what Disney is doing as possible. Yeah, there's, there's basically very little of my personality in it because that's, that's what we want is what Disney is providing. The only differences that you might see is if there's an ingredient that is very inaccessible to people to get at home, then there might be a substitution that is close as like as close as possible. I would rather you be able to make this recipe than it be like the perfect match. So, and that includes different equipment that you might use. So, a lot of a lot of holiday treats like to have Disney will use a food printer to like print a logo on it or a character and I just know not a single one of us has a food printer at home. I have, I have self reported, you know, I have every appliance, but I don't have that one. So, you know, we're going to have to substitute a couple of things there, but, but I am getting as close as possible. And just like the selection process, I do use lots of different channels in order to get that recipe and that the first, the first line of defense that I go for is taking a look at the menu. So, usually when you see a seasonal sign that has the little items, you know, that they're going to sell at this location, it will list out the kind of things that are in it. So, they'll say like I'm thinking about the sweet corn cake that they sold at Mickey's not so scary. And like that was a huge, really popular treat. And so it'll say like this is a vanilla cake shaped like a corn with vanilla frosting or whatever. So, that's my first clue. So now, now that I have that information, I'm tasting it, I'm looking for those flavors and I'm looking for any kind of flavors that are not listed. And then I'm taking notes about that. I also try to take other people with me so I can get their opinions because I don't want to just rely on my taste buds. So I try to have other people tell me what they think, what they notice about the flavors. I take lots of pictures so that I have records to go back on. And then again, I try to go online and see what are YouTubers saying? What are people when they're eating it, what's standing out to them? So I try to every single item, getting many different facets of information to try and combine that into what's going to become the final product. It's so fascinating because I mean, it's one of the things that I've been thinking, you know, leading up to this conversation is, you know, because I like to come home and try and kind of recreate something. But it's, you know, again, it's me going and trying it and usually my wife and then I'll come home and be like, eh, this was probably it and putting it together. But I've always thought of, all right, you try that treat or whatever it may be at the party and then you come back and you've had so many other things that are infiltrating your brain and so many other tastes. And so, you know, let's just say it's two, three weeks or longer in between the time that you've had to taste it and the people that you've brought into the time that you're, you know, creating that recipe and doing the taste testing. But, but you're saying, you know, you're collecting all that other data as well to kind of back you up. So you have the ability to come back and go, all right, I remember what this tasted like, but I need to pinpoint it. And that's where you go out and utilize social media or YouTube to go. Yep. That is exactly the, you know, the same thing that I remember from it. Is that, is that hard that that distance and time in between when you first try it and then you're trying to recreate it? For sure. And that's why I do try to keep my, you have to be really organized in this business. I utilize like Google Drive and I have just folders on top of folders that will have, you know, I'll have photos and then videos and then tastes and colors and all these kind of things will be in different folders that I can go back and look at. And I also will contact the people who went with me and I'll say, hey, you know, I didn't get a picture of this one item. Do you remember what kind of whatever it had on it? Because sometimes the item that you eat doesn't look like the one somebody else ate because sometimes things change just because they've run out of something or they pivoted on an item. It's nice to have several different reference points and getting, getting all those, you know, from myself or from the internet or from friends is like being able to put together a whole picture of what is the most consistent item. Yeah. Do you ever talk to the chefs or anybody at Disney while you're there? If you're, so you're trying an item and you're going, all right, I read them in your description. I've got all that down. I've taken my photos. I've tasted it. Everybody else has tasted it. We talked about it. But one item in here, I just can't pick out what it is. I do then chat with them. I know Disney will sometimes send recipes if you're able to get through the right avenue. But what does that process like if there's just something you're not quite sure what it is? Yeah. So I do, I do talk to cast members a lot. I do try to have some kind of separation there because I don't want to be seen as stealing or taking, you know, product from them. So I'm always upfront about who I am and what I do. But usually they're more than happy to speak to me about it. They usually have heard of my books or happy to share that information. It's just more on like flavors and ingredients more than like ratios. So just like anybody would ask a server, hey, what is this having it or whatever, it's kind of like that. Like I'll just say, hey, I'm, I'm interested in this dish. Like can you tell me more about what kind of ingredients are in here and so yeah, I do like to get that information as well as learning stories about them. If you've read my books, each recipe has some kind of, you know, blip on the top of it. And I do like to find out if there's any interesting quips or tails that the cast members have about certain dishes and it's always fun for me to learn from them. So yeah, I like, I like that information. So I hope other people do too. Yeah. And when I'm sure that that they love talking about it and sharing that, you know, obviously that's their passion to be chefs and are working at Disney in those areas. So usually about how many I guess versions of a recipe do you usually go through until you feel like it's spot on and then who gets to taste test all of these because it's obviously not just you. Yeah. So I really have honed in my process, you know, writing six books and so typically how I will make an item is I will try to do one attempt that has many different variations. So if I am baking, like if I'm making a cupcake, let's say, then I would make a base batter that I think is going to be the right, the right type of batter. And then if there's a filling, I would maybe try, like if I'm making a dozen cupcakes, I would do three or four different kinds of fillings across the cupcakes and then across those use different types of frostings. And so it's representative like of a bunch of different options that is in one batch. So that cuts down on waste and not having to do so many batches while still getting a plethora of information at one. Yeah. What I like to do all my recipe testing is even if it's savory or whatever, if I'm making a stew or whatever, I might say, okay, this batch has, you know, this kind of seasoning and then I might take some of that out, put it in a separate pot and add different seasoning to that and then end up finding out which one more closely matches my notes. So, and then as far as tasting, it's typically my family members. So I've got three kids and they are great testers. My husband, you know, loves it and my husband is a, is a cancer doctor and I, I often send any extra treats with, with him to, to share with the nurses. So they are always really grateful to, to have it come their way. That's awesome. I love that. How do you handle or what do you do with dealing with sort of dietary needs or anything like that? Is it comes along to the recipes and your choosing of which items you want to recreate? I like to have a spread as much as possible to include those kinds of things. I do know that a lot of people have lifestyle choices or allergies that are included in that. But a note that I always make is that the coolest thing about holding a Disney parks cookbook in your hand is that you can adjust things however you like. So if you know, okay, I'm allergic to nuts, then don't put the nuts on the salad. Whereas Disney might have them automatically there. So you may get to try a food item that you've never tried before for the first time coming from my book. And I love that. I've had people come to me and say, I'm vegan, I've never been able to have the cheeseburger spring rolls before and I've made it with impossible meat. And it was amazing. I'm glad that you made this recipe and made this book. And I'm so glad about that that people are able to do that and make those changes. So I try to include as many recipes as I can. And then people take that the next step to that's amazing. That's great too, because you know, as good as Disney is with dietary needs, you're right, there's certain things that they can only omit, you know, they're never swapping like with impossible meat, for example, you know, they'll certainly do their own take and how they have like an impossible burger and especially when it comes to the festivals with food and wine coming up, I know often has a lot of impossible possible brand stuff on there. But to think of, yeah, you know, the home cook can just swap out, you know, that ground beef with impossible, you know, ground meat per se to do that's pretty cool. Now, for sweet and savory dishes, is there one of those that you prefer to cook over the other? And then is there one of those that you prefer to eat over the other? Um, I am a savory girl myself, I'm basically like, my vice is salty, fatty kind of things like I would take a donut over a cookie, like I would take a chip over a donut like I, I, I'm that kind of person. So I think that like, I love making the savory because I can serve it to my family for dinner. So I think that that's really nice, like working from home in that way. But of course, the sweets really thrill my kids. It's always nice when a sweet treat comes up on the, on the on the roster because they're circling like sharks around the kitchen. Yeah. Yeah. I was going to say I can send you my 14 year old the next time you're writing a cookbook. She is all about sweets. She would, she would help out so much is, is there any point that your family is during the recipes, just, or, or week or whatever, like you planning out and going, all right, um, here's, here's this week's meals because here's five savory dishes that I need to figure out. Do they ever get kind of tired of it? Are they ever like, mom, I'm, I'm kind of done with maybe this one. We don't want to taste anymore. Or they always just welcoming, like give me more and more. Well, I mean, a lot of people are surprised to hear that my kids are pretty picky eaters and it sucks because like, I mean, I have done everything as a parent, like we travel the world, we, I, I serve them everything I've never not done that. So like, I've done the best I can and they still are pretty picky eaters. So they can be selective about what kind of foods they try. But they really like the prospect of being food testers. And so usually if I tell them, I would like you to taste this to test for a book. They are more interested in it. So they're, they like that idea better than just trying it for, for normal day. Yeah. With ownership in it. Right. Yeah. Yeah. They've got ownership in it and then they can go back and they go open that book and be like, yeah, I helped with that one. You know, that's pretty cool. Yeah. With the new book, the holidays cookbook, which of course does span all year, which, which is so cool. And I can't wait to dig even deeper into it. Are there any recipes for this specific book that we're super trying or hard to get just right? Um, so the, the hardest thing about this book was not, there, there wasn't something like specifically difficult, but a lot of the holiday treats, um, Disney just is like, I know how to make this Valentine's just pile like five different red and pink items on it. So for Disney, like they are creating a like a mass batch, right, of, of this pink like cream cheese frosting or something. But if I'm trying to make a human sized amount of these, then it's a lot to make that many elements for one dish. If you have to make a meringue and a frosting and a chocolate decoration and a cake and whatever, so it was more just trying to keep organized on top of the elements rather than it being actually difficult. So, and that's sort of also my, uh, not warning, but like tip to people who are approaching this book is that the, some of the, some of the items do have a lot of elements. Usually they're not hard. It's just a little bit time consuming. And secondly, if you decide to cut out some of those, that's totally fine. You don't have to make it exactly like Disney, I do, but you don't. So you can decide, okay, I don't want to make a white chocolate decor piece for this. That's fine. You know, nobody's going to notice, nobody cares. So you make it however complicated you want to make it. And you know, you don't have to feel bogged down by that. Yeah. And Disney I've seen, you know, over the years seems to be focusing so much more on these limited time, you know, treats that are available during the different seasons. Uh, another thing that I, I think I've noticed personally, I'd be interested to see if you have two is a couple of years ago, it seemed like Disney was so focused on what was Instagramable, what took the best photo. But a lot of times it lacked a little bit on the taste, uh, and the way that things went together. I do think that they're kind of like putting that towards the forefront. Like, Hey, we don't only need it to look good. We need it to, to taste good over the, over the years that you've been doing this and creating all these different cookbooks. What I guess different trends or things have you seen change with the parks and the way that they're preparing and presenting food? I agree with you on that. I do think that there was a time that it was like trying to make it cuter than it was tasty. And I do think that is getting better. Um, I've just noticed in the last couple of years that the food has been really good. And most, if not all of it has been really impressive to me. Uh, I also think that it's great spanning a wide selection of options. Um, I got to visit the Pixar Fest that just happened at California Adventure this last summer. And, um, I just loved being able to try the different foods that they really leaned into the multicultural aspect. You know, I got to have a bow bun at the turning red booth and then I got to have this like delicious asparagus pasta at the Luca booth. And so it was like really fun trying these different items. And I really thought, you know, the, the pasta, it wasn't very cute. Like it really was just like a asparagus pasta, but it was delicious. I really, really liked it. And so I think like, that's better to me is to have food that, that tastes better because then you're going to go back and get it again. Yeah. You, you buy it once. Yeah. That's it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I wonder how much of that came from them doing festival of the arts because I feel like that was a lot of the turn when that came around, which is only, you know, it hasn't been around. It's the, the shortest, I guess festival that's been around, um, and they seem to all this like they hit a point was like, Hey, you know what, this can look good and taste good. Um, and become kind of these pieces of art in the, in the holidays cookbook. Are there, uh, maybe a couple of recipes that you just absolutely love that are kind of the first ones, maybe you'd recommend, uh, people gravitate to. Yeah. Um, one that comes to mind is the sweet sand cookies that are from Galaxy's Edge. This was a limited time offering that was at Disneyland only. And they typically, uh, sold out early in the day. They only had a limited amount of them. They're basically Gideon style cookies and they have, um, chocolate chips, uh, toffee pieces and pistachios all like piled on top of the big, big cookie. And I love this because even though it's called like a Star Wars dish, it really doesn't have a connection to Star Wars at all. So you can make it for anything, any day. I think they're just a super impressive cookie that'll look great. If you bring it to a party and you can make them without the pistachios if people don't like that, um, so I think they're super fun and because they're that big look with all the stuff piled on top, they just look great. Yeah. Well, I'll have to try that one. I didn't even know that one had existed out there and right now we're heading down to Disney this weekend for the opening of food and wine. And there's this tower of terror cookie actually over in Hollywood studios that from the photos looks very similar to what you're describing in the sense of it being that big kind of thick Gideon's cookie. And I believe it has like, you know, coarse sprinkled salt on top and and they've dyed it purple, you know, just to kind of give it a little bit of a spooky look, but I'll be interested to try that out. Do you, do you have any advice kind of for maybe the aspiring home cook or somebody that wants to get into creating their own recipes at home? Yeah, for sure. So this is, this is going to be a deep cut, but when I was a kid and I used to come home from school, well, I would watch the show show zoom. Do you know this show? I do not. It was like on PBS, like that's, I didn't even have cable growing up, but we, it was on PBS and it was like these kids who people would write in and they would like do goofy games and stuff. Anyways, that doesn't really matter. The point is they did this game that they had all the ingredients for a peanut butter sandwich in a paper bag and then they had each of the kids had to write the instructions on how to make a peanut butter sandwich and then they put it on the outside of the bag and you had to follow the instructions exactly. So almost everybody didn't say open the jar of peanut butter. So people just like shoved the knife like through the top of the jar or they didn't say open the bag of bread. So people were like smashing like peanut butter on top of the bread. You get what I'm saying? Yeah. It was sort of an exercise on being clearer in how you explain things. And of course, in my recipes, I'm not going to say open a jar of peanut butter, like that's not the point I'm making. It's that you really want to think about if I didn't write this and if I am looking through the lens of someone else's eyes, what does this look like to them? Do they understand it? If I'm saying grill this, well, what does that mean? Am I grilling it on a, on like a propane grill? Am I on a grill pan like what? That could be interpreted different ways. So you try to think if I was handed this instruction with no prior knowledge, what would this look like to me? And I think that that is the way that I try to approach it is if I was level one, never been in the kitchen before, what does this recipe look like? And I want to do that every time I write a recipe. Yeah. No, that is, that's absolutely great advice. Is there, are there any food items that you absolutely hate? Like for example, I hate pickles, I hate mustard. Certainly those can be involved in a lot of dishes throughout Disney. If I wanted to bring that to a cookbook, if I was writing one, you know, how do you go about that? Is there anything that you don't like that you still have to include in a recipe and you're like, all right, I'll just leave this to everybody else to taste. I'm not even trying it or you just try it. My, I would say my biggest hold up is that I don't do great with spice. I just, if things get spicy, I'm just sensitive to it. But I do try to like be aware of flavors rather than heat. So if I can, I will use more like paprika's rather than red pepper to try and bring a similar flavor without the heat, but like my husband likes hotter food. So usually I will taste it and then add a little bit more. And then he can try it. So it's not that I won't eat it or I don't like it. It's just like, I will start to go off a lot. And so it's like, I feel like I'm not accurately representing something if I'm like, but other than that, I don't, I don't really have many food versions. I have preferences, of course, but I'm, I'm willing to try just about everything. Yeah. Well, that's very, very good. That's one of the many, many reasons I've never written a cookbook. Also your attention to detail is just through the roof and incredible of everything you put into, you know, a single recipe. It's just, it's absolutely amazing all that behind the scenes. Writing the holidays cookbook specifically. What did you find is the best holiday for Disney exclusive treats? Now of course, you know, Halloween and Christmas have the most, doesn't necessarily make them the best. Was there anything that really surprised you? Like, wow, they're really killing it for, you know, a Valentine's Day or July 4th or whatever it may be. I just thought it was super fun to explore the different holidays because I think sometimes people aren't going, like for Halloween and Christmas, people are going there for those food items, but I would like to know how many people are like, Oh, I want to go to the celebrate soulfully and try to get every dish that it's basically like, Oh, I showed up at a stand and I saw a sign for a celebrate soulfully dish so I'm going to get it like so I was really excited to explore more obscure holidays that that we don't get to look into a lot. One of the most fun for me was the pride collection. I thought that was so great to get to see all the different choices that they had. And I love adding color to food so, but yeah, I would say like if you pick up this book, which I hope everybody does, that you do check out some holidays that you maybe aren't as familiar with or that you haven't been to Disney for because not only do you get to check out the favorites that you've tried, but you can try things that you've never tried or maybe things that are extinct that aren't going to be served anymore. So you can have that opportunity to try something new that you haven't. Yeah, I love that you bring that up, you know, we're we're very fortunate. We live two hours from Disney's Walt Disney World's doorstep and we're down there two, three times a month. And you know, we make a point when there are specialty items and there's things like right now we've got princess week going on. They've had a certain amount that have been available all month, then you have certain items that are only available this week for princess week. And we do our best to make it around and try as much as we can, but it's just impossible pretty much. You know, and so I love the idea of being, you know, either us coming home or the person that just can't get down there for the entire month of princess month to look and just say a cookbook of yours and go, you know what, that's an item that I saw. I would love to to try it. We can't make it down there. So I'm going to go ahead and recreate it at home and I think that's something a lot of people don't think about with this aspect, you know, specifically, I think in other cook books, people buy them because they just want to try new things maybe. But with Disney, I think people focus more on, I've had this and I want it again as opposed to exploring the things they never got to try, you know, and now they can bring those home and they can actually make them at home. I don't want to forget this part and then I have hopefully a fun question for you, but right now, just let everybody know where they can find your cookbook and find you all your cookbooks and find you on social media. Yeah, so my cookbooks are definitely all available on Amazon, so that's that's typically the easiest place, but of course, Barnes and Noble or Simon and Schuster.com. The new book will hopefully be on shelves at your local stores like Target, Walmart, books and million, anything like that. And yeah, pre-orders are open right now. The book comes out on September 3rd and I am mostly on Instagram. My handle is Unofficial Taste Tester and I'd love to see everybody over there. I post some recipes sometimes and I'm always happy to answer any DMs or any questions. And I can't reckon like these books are amazing, like I can't recommend them enough, you know, we again, we've picked up a lot of books straight from Disney and I'll be honest, I've never made a recipe out of a single one of them. I more so just I more so just flip through them. And then a lot of them I'm just like, well, I don't really want to get into that. But yours again are super accessible and and you can recreate those Disney dishes right at home. If we know Walt Disney himself loved chili, but if you if if Walt was here today and you could make him one item from any of your cookbooks, is there a certain one that that you would just love to share and not necessarily because of the history of Walt and that he loved, you know, something specifically, but just something that you feel represents, you know, Disney as a whole within their their parks and resorts. That is a really good question. I've never been asked that. I know that Walt Disney was a meat and potatoes guy. I know that he had very simple tastes. He had a home cook, but she was only allowed to make him a very short list of items. I don't know if you know this about about Walt, but you know, I didn't know that part. Yeah. Yeah. I knew this is potatoes, right? I didn't know that part of it. Yeah. So he there is a handwritten note that is that is in the archives or whatever like you can look it up that he wrote down only dishes he allowed his his cook to make. And it was like 10 items and they were all, I think there was like a meatloaf or, you know, just very simple American cuisine. So yeah, I mean, I think I would try to find something like that for him. I'm pretty sure half these things would cause him to pass out or have a heart attack or something. Like what the heck is a sweet corn and vanilla soft serve swirl like I've never didn't even exist back then. Yeah. So yeah, that's a that's a really good question. And this is not my like official answer if I had to think about it, but like I'm looking at the millionaire shortbread bars from for New Year's Eve. And that is like a classic dessert that everybody would love and I know all would love it too. So I would serve him up something like that. That's great. Nice sweet treat. Yeah, well, I can say maybe Walt aside, but for anyone who's going to go purchase all your cookbooks, the Gaston's cinnamon rolls, first of all, they're better than the parks. I will say. Yeah, they are. They are. They're very close, but better. You know what I mean? Like we, my wife and daughters made them one time for Christmas Eve are the tradition from the time I was probably five years old for Christmas Eve breakfast. We would have cinnabons, you know, my dad would go out the day before and he'd buy those big cinnabons from the store and bring them home. We'd warm them up. And that was our tradition. So when I started my own family, I made that my tradition. And then as my parents started to come and visit our home on Christmas morning, you know, with our kids, we would continue that tradition. And then we got the cookbook that had those in there. And my wife said, I want to make these for Christmas Eve more or Christmas morning instead. And I was like, oh, that is not going to go over well with my parents like they are traditionalists. And they are, they are simply, they would like all the same things that Walt Disney himself like. They're meat and potatoes. They're very simple. And yeah, my wife and my girls made that and we had it Christmas morning and my parents are like, okay, this is better than cinnabon. This is better than anything. And we went the following year. I think it was. We actually spent Christmas in Disney and we went and got one of Gaston's cinnamon rolls on Christmas Eve and we warmed it up in the microwave that was at the resort property. We had that one that morning and we all four of us were like, yeah, it was still better last year. We did Ashley's version. So I got to say, anybody, it is, it's a little more time consuming, but it is, it's one of those things to, you know, food brings people together. And not only just, you know, going to the parks and the resorts and all and eating it and sharing it, but then bringing that home and one of the questions, you know, we get all the time because we are fortunate to go a lot is, you know, people want to know, well, we don't get to go all the time. We go once a year like, what do we do in between those trips? You know, how do we bring Disney home? And this is such a great way, you know, because it just goes levels beyond just watching Disney movies or listening to Disney music or, you know, thumbing back through your phone and looking at the photos from your last trip, it's like a bonding type experience that you can do with friends and family and everyone to bring these dishes, you know, from the, the trips that you took. But also to the people that don't go, you know, that you can go, Hey, I want to make you this recipe from Disney that we absolutely loved. And maybe they've never even been there, but you kind of give them that taste. So yeah, I think what you're doing is, is just incredible. And there aren't any other cookbooks out there that I found that are like this. So I think you have found such a wonderful niche and, and, you know, for people to bring all that magic home. So I can't wait for this new book and to dive in, you know, with the holidays coming up as far as Halloween and Christmas Thanksgiving and all those. And now I'm going to like this week and especially probably just take such a different look at the dishes and all we're trying. Is there, is there a festival that is one of your favorites as far as just eating the food in general and then compared to like maybe one of the Epcot festivals that you love to recreate dishes for it specifically? I do really love festival of the arts. That's my favorite festival. So I love that you mentioned it, but I think it has an incredible mix of both eye catching and delicious foods. And so I've super enjoyed doing festival of the arts, but I'm a big fan of the ticketed parties. I'm obsessed with all the Halloween parties, Christmas at Magic Kingdom, you know, those have all been such great times for me and really enjoyed them. So yeah, I'm excited for you to go and to look at it through a different lens and let me know any delicious things you find. Yeah, I definitely will. I have one final question for you before we wrap up. How do you separate that work from that play when you're in the parks? Is there ever a time that you maybe just sit down at a meal or you sit down with a snack or what it may be and go, "You know what? I'm just going to eat this thing and enjoy it. I'm not going to take photos or I'm not going to take notes." Or is your brain constantly like, "Nope, I got a document every single thing that I'm doing." Well, it's so weird because I probably completed writing this book like a year ago. The way that the process goes is that, you know, I write the manuscript and then there's a lot of work that happens after that and so I've taken a lot of trips since completing writing this book and this is my last Disney cookbook at least for a while. So all these times that I've gone to the park, I literally don't have a contract or don't have a table of contents or anything and I can't stop working. So I've gone to Disneyland Paris a couple of times and even while I'm there, I'm constantly like, I've got the camera ready to go and I'm asking everybody like, "Everybody, you know, we're out of buffet. Everybody get a different dessert so we can all try them." And so yeah, I really don't stop. I think that when I'm actively working on a project, I usually don't bring my kids with me and that makes it, I feel like more, makes it feel more professional. I do try to bring friends or family members that I hire as assistants. So they know that they're coming to the Disney parks in order to taste the food and if we get time to do rides or shows or anything, that's on top of that. So they come into it knowing what the requirements are of being my assistant. Don't worry, we always have tons of fun, but it's usually going from one food place to another boom, boom, boom, boom trying as many dishes as possible in a short amount of time. Do you end up bringing, I guess, work home in the sense of when you go out to eat, just say with family or friends around where you live? Are you able to turn off the work brain then? Or even there, are you like, oh, this dish is pretty good. I'd like to recreate this at home or do you have, you know, your kids or your husband or friends going, hey, can you recreate this at home and you're like, all right, I got to figure it out. I do give that a lot. Yeah, I would say, I would say that usually when I'm out to eat, I'm not thinking about that. But if it's if there is a dish that is similar to a Disney dish or something that I'm working on, that's really fascinating to me to be able to get a second look at a different preparation of it. Like I was trying to do, I think it's in this book, but it's like the funnel cake straws or the funnel cake, like sticks or whatever. Yeah. And I was trying to figure out how to make that shape and we had a local restaurant that served them. So I went to the restaurant in order to order them and to take a closer look at them. So how cool. Sometimes that's how it goes and I would love to expand my expertise, I guess, into different areas such as local restaurants or different themed different kinds of cookbooks. So I am always looking for opportunities like that. Yeah. Well, we'll certainly look out for that because I know anybody who is familiar with your Disney cookbook, so that picks them up for the first time and loves them would would probably love something like that as well. But Ashley, thank you so much for for joining me today. Is there anything else you you wanted to add before we sign off? No, thank you. This has been lovely. It's been great to talk to you again. I follow you guys on social media. So I'm always seeing what you're up to, but always nice to have a chat. Yeah. Well, likewise. And again, don't just buy the books. Everybody go follow her on social. You can get that more of that insight and again, she's just absolutely wonderful. So thank you. You'll see a lot of stuff on our feed this weekend. So yeah, if you got any questions, ask me, I'll probably ask you a bunch about all the dishes. So again, Ashley, thank you, appreciate you very much. And yeah, looking very much forward to this cookbook. Thank you. That's all the time we have with Ashley today, but I hope you enjoyed this conversation as much as I did head out now, because it is available to your local bookstore, to Target, to Walmart, go on Amazon and pick up Ashley's latest unofficial Disney parks holidays cookbook. It is out right now. Then whether you're ready for your next Disney destination vacation or your first, our trusted partner, MEI travel and mouse fan travel, will handle the planning so you can focus on the memories. For free vacation planning services and have nearly 20 years of experience creating memorable Disney vacations, you can visit mainstmagic.com/travel for a fee free, no obligation quote today. And if you want to keep getting these episodes every Tuesday and Friday, make sure you hit that subscribe button. And of course, myself, Rhonda, and I'm sure Ashley would be super thankful if you could please leave us a rating and review, because it really does help the show grow. That's all we've got, we'll see you real soon. ♪ Jeremy and Rhonda are more than a little fond of Disney World ♪ ♪ So they made this podcast to share it all with you ♪ ♪ Reports and resorts, top ten lists of all sorts ♪ ♪ Main Street Magic's bringing it home for you ♪ ♪ music fades ♪ (upbeat music) [ Silence ]
Jeremy is back with this month's Journey Into Imagination series and sits down with with Ashley Craft, the author of the Unofficial Disney Cookbook Series. As a child who grew up in Anaheim, California, Ashley Craft could recite the Star Tours ride by heart, navigate the Park without a map, and fell asleep to the sound of Disneyland fireworks each night in her bedroom. After two internships at Walt Disney World and many, many more visits to the Disney Parks, Ashley is now one of the leading experts of Disneyland and Walt Disney World. Her popular blog, Ashley Crafted, is best known for featuring recipes inspired by Disney Park foods to help people recreate that Disney magic right in their own kitchens. Today, Ashley lives in Kansas with her husband, Danny, and three kids, Elliot, Hazel, and Clifford…but she still makes time to visit the Mouse. Learn more at AshleyCrafted.com and buy her latest book today.
