Cooking With Soul At Disney Featuring Celebrity Chef Carla Hall

Celebrity chef and respected soul food expert Carla Hall visited Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., with her family to celebrate soulfully by honoring and paying tribute to Black heritage and culture through music, food, and art. Hall served as a gracious host to guests and members of the Black media on a soulful culinary extravaganza that showcased culturally-inspired cuisines available throughout the various Disney restaurants. Walt Disney World Resort and Disneyland Resort are incorporating Celebrate Soulfully, now in its second year, into their experiences and as an initiative for reimagining tomorrow to promote diversity and inclusion throughout the parks.

Walt Disney World Resort created an epicurean adventure inspired by folklore passed down through the Black community through the dishes made by Black chefs at selected locations throughout the resort under the banner "Cooking with Soul."

Cooking with Soul – Walt Disney World Restaurant collection kicked off first at Jiko – The Cooking Place at Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge. The restaurant offers a fusion of traditional African, Indian, and Mediterranean cuisine with steak, chicken, seafood and plant-based dishes infused with a uniquely bold blend of flavors and fragrant spices. The menu changes seasonally but includes appetizers like grilled wild boar tenderloin and entrées such as oak-grilled filet mignon.

The Scat Cat's Club at Disney's Port Orleans Resort – French Quarter gives visitors a chance to kick their feet up and simmer down with the southern-style jazz lounge ambiance. The decor is filled with music memorabilia, and the bar will concoct any desired libation, such as cocktails, wine, draft beer, and tasty appetizers and sweet treats like beignets.

The Polite Pig at Disney Springs is a restaurant that features "modern barbecue" in an open kitchen, with Southern sides like a tomato and watermelon salad, mac and cheese, and smoked corn with lime butter. For patrons who prefer to top off their meals with flavorful sauce, there's a bar with seven different offerings, from Layla's Sweet to Fresno Hot Sauce.

Chef Art Smith's Homecomin' – Florida Kitchen and Southern Shine at Disney Springs offers farm-to-fork cuisine, this eatery presents Southern favorites like homemade pimento cheese, low country shrimp and grits, kale salad with Sweet Grass Dairy cheese, spiced pecans, and a grilled Blackstrap pork chop with sawmill gravy. Each dish has a Florida twist, and many will feel that they are in the comfort of their home, on the back porch, enjoying a succulent meal.

Tiffins Restaurant at Disney's Animal Kingdom Park will awaken guests' inner adventurers when they dine on a meal inside a renowned adventurers' club where the travel motif is in every nook and cranny.

"The variety [of food] ran the gamut," said Hall. "[We tried] not only food from The States, and different parts of America, but also internationally and into Africa."

The "Cooking with Soul" food tour concluded at Disney Yacht Club Convention Center with Hall and Disney chef Douglas James, who hails from Jamaica, conducting an in-depth cooking demonstration. Chef Douglas prepared lamb chops and collard greens, pairing the meal with wines from the McBride Sisters Wine Company, a minority-owned business. Disney sommelier Debbi Sacleux, a Cinderella's Royal Table proprietor at Magic Kingdom Park, curated the wines available at the Magic Kingdom Park.

Hall said it is importance to learn the history of soul food and its ingredients.

"A lot of people have seen Netflix's High On The Hog, based on the book by Dr. Jessica B. Harris. What I love about it [is] there's so much of a history that we as African-Americans have forgotten. Making that connection to the diaspora and the Middle Passage; it wasn't about slavery, but so much of our culture was connected there. I think it's made us more curious and has made us think about other ingredients, legumes, and grains moreso than the small box in which we have put soul food. It's important to be more curious and think about some of the ingredients that come from East Africa, West Africa, and southern Africa; even though most people in the states come from West Africa, it is all the motherland. The other thing I want to say is we talk about travel. We go back to the islands but if you want to connect to our Blackness, put your travel dollars into Africa, specifically certain countries, Senegal, Gambia, Nigeria, Ghana, I mean c'mon folks."

Walt Disney World Resort recently announced that Princess Tiana will have her own line of merchandise collection available during the 2022 EPCOT International Food and Wine Festival presented by Corkcicle, with additional pieces expected to debut later this fall. Select items will also be available on shopDisney.com.

"I've been coming here probably for about eight years. It has gone from being like a chocolate chip cookie to something just very diverse and seeing all the diversity, the diversity that I see at the park," she added. "And to see people who look like me and to celebrate a character who looks like me and to celebrate the thing that I think we how we pass on our culture, which is through food, that should be celebrated," said Hall, Cheat Sheet reports.

African-American dishes have retained their African lineage in such staples as collard greens, yams, black-eyed peas, and okra over the generations.

Chef James discussed the African influence in Jamaican cuisine, "Well definitely some of the spices, some of the staples like plantains, cassava, yam, African yams, you can see the staples represent Africa."

He explained every culture throughout the African diaspora; like the Caribbean, there is a representation of a green side dish like Caillou in Jamaica, yet Trinidadians use it as a soup.

Epcot International Food and Wine Festival will continue until November 19 and will have a Kenya Marketplace where foodies can savor traditional Kenyan food, coffee, and beer.

Hall is an accomplished chef, best-selling author, and television personality often recognized as a competitor on Top Chef and Top Chef: All Stars and as the former co-host of ABC's The Chew. She is a culinary contributor on Good Morning America and appears on Food Network. Her latest cookbook, "Carla Hall's Soul Food: Everyday and Celebration," is a celebration of soul food's rich culture and history.

As Celebrate Soulfully festivities continue to learn more about these experiences, visit DisneyParks.com/Blog and Disney Parks social channels via Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok.