ANAHEIM, Calif. — When it comes to traditional cuisine, there’s nothing more Mexican than birria, a slow-cooked piece of goat or beef meat, usually served in soups or tacos.
In the U.S., nothing is more American than macaroni and cheese.
At this year’s Disney Food & Wine Festival, Disneyland Resort’s food and beverage team brought the two together for the first time.
“We wanted to invite people who are familiar with mac and cheese but not familiar with birria to come and try those things together,” said Disneyland Chef Luis Madrigal.
For chefs at Disneyland Resort, the annual Food & Wine Festival has a special significance. The food and beverage teams spend several months preparing and testing a combination of dishes that’ll whet visitors’ appetite.
“Food and Wine for chefs is like our Super Bowl,” said Daniel “Duke” Brown at Friday’s kick-off at Disney California Adventure. “We get together. We get the best of the best. We get the best ingredients. We bring the team together and we want to showcase our stories, our food, our heritage and of course, all our cuisines here in Southern California.”
The Disney California Adventure Food & Wine Festival returned Friday to the Disneyland Resort and will run until April 21.
The annual festival is again offering limited-time dishes and beverages, entertainment, merchandise and more — all inspired by the cultures and ingredients across California.
New this year is the introduction of Mercado de Antojos, a marketplace honoring Hispanic cuisine.
Guests planning to sample multiple menu items may choose to purchase a Sip and Savor Pass, which is redeemable for select food or nonalcoholic beverages from participating festival marketplaces or dining locations at Disney California Adventure Park. The full festival menu can be viewed on the Disney Parks Blog.
Additional highlights include the return of the fan-favorite attraction Soarin' Over California and chef-led culinary demonstrations on Saturdays and Sundays. Bookable experiences, such as mixology classes and tasting seminars, can be reserved for a separate fee here.
For Madrigal, the festival allows chefs to try new flavor combinations and bring cultures together. The new birria mac and cheese is a perfect example of that, he said.
The meal is comprised of mac and cheese as a base and topped with a heaping of birria and drizzled with a cilantro-onion crema and corn tortilla crumbs for texture.
“I’m Hispanic so birria is one of our known flavors. One of the chefs I work with he’s Caucasian and he’s all about mac and cheese. So when we came up with the idea, it was like, ‘Yeah. Let’s make it work. We have to.”
Chef Brown suggested other must try flavors:
At Aunt Cass Café, there’s a burrata toast — toasted sourdough, onion jam, burrata, tomatoes, arugula and drizzled with a balsamic glaze.
At Paradise Garden Grill, the Pescado Zarandeado is a whole grilled fish with corn tortillas, refried beans, Spanish rice, zesty slaw, pickled vegetables, and a side of chips and salsa.
Good to share with the family, said Chef Brown.
And at the Studio Catering Co., Brown suggests the salsa verde chicharrón tacos, a taco with pork belly chicharrón tossed in warm salsa verde and topped with salsa macha and pickled onions.
“Who doesn’t love pork belly,” said Brown.
Will Sayre - Digital Media Producer
Will Sayre is a digital producer at Spectrum News. He graduated with honors from Boston University's College of Communication in three years and went on to work at Warner Bros. for the Emmy-winning series 'Crime Watch Daily' and 'Extra.' Sayre has interviewed many celebrities over the years, including Wolfgang Puck and Sugar Ray Leonard.
