New Book: Eat Like Walt (Jason’s 1st Impressions)

Eat Like Walt – The Wonderful World of Disney Food explores Disney Dining during Walt’s time as well as Walt’s personal tastes.  This includes detailed discussions of Walt at Home, Walt at the Studio and Walt’s Disneyland.   For the Studios & Disneyland each location has its own entry with dates of operation, history of the location and in many cases connections to Walt or small stories that include Walt.  In addition to the detailed narrative there are a number of images from the archives, many showcased at full page size, featuring a dining location and/or Walt.   Other media included are a selection of artist renderings, menus, and advertisements.  One of the last sections of the books features several signature recipes from locations discussed in the book if you wanted to try your hand at creating a favorite.

At first I was a bit hesitant about this book.   Since I am not a big food person I was concerned it may dwell on recipes and food which are not high on my list of things to read about.  I was quite wrong.  The main focus of the book is on the history of the restaurants themselves and Walt’s connection.   The perspective of exploring this narrow aspect of Disney history in detail is unique and I hope will inspire future books on other focused topics.

I really enjoyed reading through this book and learning some tidbits of information from Disneyland’s past plus some great Walt stories.   I see this book being a great reference for years to come.  It is a very thorough catalog and history of dining locations at the Studios and Disneyland during the Walt years.  I really appreciated the larger format and full page pictures, many of which I do not recall seeing elsewhere.

If you are interested in stepping back in time and learning more about Disneyland and the Walt Disney Studios over the years through the lens of dining locations when Walt was alive and frequented both you need to consider adding this book to your library, you will not be disappointed.