‘The ‘Eatymologies’ of the Theme Park: Re-creation, Imagination and the ‘Extra/Ordinary’ in Disney Foodstuff’

This chapter explores the intersections between the use of cookbooks and place by focusing on recipe books inspired by the themed spaces of Walt Disney World and Disneyland theme parks. Work on fan cookbooks remains scarce, but Magladry (2017) argues that cooking recipes from fictional texts ‘functions as a type of culinary tourism’ (2017, p. 8) where eating related food enables ‘a sensual, embodied experience of another place without having ever been there’ (2017, p. 8).

However, although ‘being there’ is crucial for fans of food and drink consumed in theme parks such as Walt Disney World (Williams, 2018), since these are not ordinary and cannot be consumed in the usual rhythms and routines of the fan’s life, this chapter explores how the existence of both official Disney-endorsed and fan-created cookbooks. These books, which include recipes for many of the iconic food and drink available in the Parks, complicate the issue of spatial exclusivity of these items. Through analysis of three of these cookbooks – the official The Ultimate Disney World Cookbook and Cooking With Mickey and the Disney Chefs, and the unofficial Deliciously Disney Copycat Recipes - I consider how they re-situate items that are exclusive to particular places as dishes that can be consumed within the everyday ordinary space of the home kitchen. The chapter analyses how the dichotomy between auratic foodstuffs and the home-made replicas can be negotiated, alongside the inherent commercial tensions between officially produced and Disney-endorsed cookbooks and fan-created objects that might threaten the Company’s corporate intellectual interests.