875: Cooking Up Disney History with Carly Caramanna

About this episode

Jeremy interviews Carly Caramanna about Disney food history and her upcoming cookbook.

Jeremy sits down with acclaimed theme park journalist, Disney food expert, and author Carly Caramanna for a fascinating conversation about Disney food history, nostalgia, storytelling, and her upcoming book, The Unofficial Disney Parks Retro Cookbook. Carly shares her journey from growing up in a Disney-loving family in New Jersey to becoming one of the most recognized voices covering theme parks and travel, with work appearing in outlets including USA Today, CNN, BBC, NPR, and more. Along the way, she reveals how a late-night discovery of a 1981 Walt Disney World cast member restaurant manual eventually sparked the idea for a cookbook dedicated not just to recipes, but to preserving the stories behind Disney's most beloved dining experiences. Together, Jeremy and Carly explore the evolution of Disney food over the decades, discussing everything from the earliest days of Disneyland to the Michael Eisner era, Pleasure Island, Disney-MGM Studios, Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser, and beyond. Carly shares behind-the-scenes details about researching long-forgotten restaurants, tracking down former cast members, recreating extinct recipes, and adapting vintage dishes for modern…

People in this episode

Host: Jeremy

Guest: Carly Caramanna

Topics covered

• Disney food history
• nostalgia
• storytelling
• theme parks
• culinary scene
• Disney adults

Keywords

• Disney
• food history
• cookbook
• theme parks
• nostalgia
• culinary
• recipes
• Disney adults

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: USA Today, CNN, BBC, NPR

Books & works: The Unofficial Disney Parks Retro Cookbook

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