On Thursday, 26 May, the California Grill restaurant, located on the 15th floor of Disney’s Contemporary Resort hotel, will be introducing an expansion of diverse plant-based dishes to its menu. Chef de Cuisine Daniel Sicilia, Chef Matthew Birch, and their culinary team have infused new flavors into these vegetable-centric courses.
The Florida Peach and Raspberry Salad highlight some of Florida’s fresh, bright, and flavorful ingredients by featuring grilled and fresh peaches, raspberry variations, steel-cut oat granola tart, and red onion, with a whipped raspberry vinaigrette.
The house-made Vegetable Dumplings are made with a Doenjang miso-cola onion sauce, radish, crispy garlic-chili oil, and pickled lotus root. Its sauces and accompaniments touch on various parts of the palette, like sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami, and embrace inspirations from both the Asian culture and Californian cuisine. Chef Assistant Huong Lee, fondly known as Mother by the team, even helped Chef Daniel make this dish a reality by perfecting this crystal dumpling dough.
Entrees include a unique take on cacio e pepe. Disney’s plant-based version includes sunflower, allium, crispy sunchokes, charred green onions, toasted onions, and a sunflower seed-ramp pistou along with delicious house-made bucatini topped with a cashew cream sauce.
The other new plant-based entrée is the Peas and Carrots Risotto with heirloom carrots, English peas, green garlic, confit onion, and sweet carrot foam. This elevated take on a classic dish enhances fresh flavors and ingredients in different and creative ways by the chefs, particularly Chef Matthew Birch who crafted the dish to look like everything is sprouting up from the ground.
For a sweet finish, the Peanut and Banana Torte is a twist on the classic PB&J. It combines shortbread, peanut ganache, miso-caramel, nut crumbles, and caramelized bananas.
A twist on the “Banana Fritters” that were featured at the restaurant back in 2013, the Lavender Sugar Donuts is a special 50th Anniversary item that is now home on the plant-based menu, featuring some updated fresh ingredients in season. It has a coconut frozen dessert, blueberry gin jam, and pistachio crumble.
Not only does California Grill have this exciting plant-based menu, but it also has new seasonal dishes, two of which include the Florida Rock Shrimp Salad and the EARidescent Crème Brûlée. The Florida Rock Shrimp Salad has a history with California Grill, paying homage to former Chef de Cuisine Brian Piasecki’s signature salad for the restaurant. This updated version has similar flavors while lightening it up and adding texture with hearts of palm, petite lettuce, yuzu, avocado, jicama, and crisp rice crackers topped with a ginger vinaigrette.
The EARidescent Crème Brûlée serves up a pineapple-mango compote, hibiscus meringue, hibiscus crystals, and coconut and has become quite the fan favorite with its glimmer and shimmer celebrating the 50th Anniversary. Pastry Sous Chef Amber Vega took inspiration from California with the hibiscus and tropical flavors that lighten up the taste for spring and summer! Who doesn’t love a little sparkle with some fresh flavors?
