Just Ask the Dishes: The Best-Looking Food in Disney and Pixar, Served in Courses

Disney movies mean many things to many people. To a lot of audiences, Magic Kingdom movies like Peter Pan and Toy Story represent innocence, childhood nostalgia, and the first time many of us ever had our hearts broken along with Mickey Mouse and all his friends. To others, they are valuable life lessons and reflections of society itself. One thing we can all agree upon about Disney films: Disney food always looks good, from Sleeping Beauty’s weird leaning cake to Belle’s dancing ones to Mary Poppins’ spoonful of sugar.

There is a long tradition of depicting fantastical, delicious feasts in movies by the Walt Disney Company, which we are expanding to include movies by Pixar Animation Studio because we absolutely just had to.

Lucasfilm may have Indiana Jones and Star Wars, but those franchises had better do a lot better than monkey brains and blue milk before they make it to this list. Ditto for The Lion King (1994) and its weird grubs.

Without further ado, prepare for a Disney food feast for the eyes!

Congee, Bacon & Eggs (‘Mulan’)

We’ll start with breakfast, the most important meal of the day. Mulan (1998) features its plucky heroine (Ming-Na Wen) being practically force-fed a bowl of congee by Mushu (Eddie Murphy), the irritating small dragon guardian spirit that’s supposed to be protecting her in her battles against the invading Huns.

But as dubiously competent as Mushu might be at helping Mulan with her actual quest, it cannot be denied that he puts together a pretty awesome-looking breakfast for this entry of delicious Disney food.

Congee is a pan-Asian rice porridge (usually made with broth and served savory, in contrast to European porridge), and our little dragon chef has given it a fun little bacon and egg face. Off to battle, Mulan!

The Original Disney Poison Apple (‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’)

Now that we have breakfast out of the way, it is time for a sensible, nutritious snack for our list of Disney food. In this case, we’ll go all the way back to the very first full-length animated feature film (not to mention Disney’s first movie), Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), for a nice, healthy apple.

Okay, we have to admit that while this particular apple looks incredibly enticing and delicious, it is actually incredibly deadly and infused with all the terrifying dark magic that the Evil Queen (Lucille La Verne) can manage.

While it doesn’t actually kill Snow White (Adriana Caselotti), it comes pretty close, and maybe we shouldn’t recommend it as a mid-morning treat. But still, that’s one good-looking apple.

Arepa con Queso of Disney Love (‘Encanto’)

Alright, lunchtime! One can do a lot worse for a satisfying mid-day meal in the world of Walt Disney than one of Julieta Madrigal’s (Angie Cepeda) literally magical arepas con queso, as seen in the movie Encanto (2021). Halfway through your day in a magical land where your family is relied upon to protect and look over everyone, you’re going to want a satisfying, cheesy meal, and the Madrigal family is your best bet.

In Encanto, (nearly) every member of the Madrigal family is empowered with a magical ability that they manifest on their fifth birthday. One member becomes super-strong, another can see the future, yet another can talk to animals, and so forth.

But we can’t imagine a better magical ability than to literally nourish your loved ones and magically heal them with your home cooking, as Julieta does. An arepa is a traditional pan-American dish that is essentially a soft cornmeal cake stuffed with delicious fillings; in this case, we see a specifically Colombian form of the dish filled with gooey, soft cheese.

Vanellope’s Cookie of Honor (‘Ralph Breaks the Internet’)

Of course, after a heavy lunch of corn cakes oozing with warm cheese and magical maternal, you are probably going to be pretty sleepy. The best way to combat that is, naturally, a sugar rush to get your energy back (don’t quote us, we’re not Walt Disney World nutritionists).

Who better to provide that than the champion racer of the Sugar Rush arcade game cabinet herself, Vanellope von Schweetz (Sarah Silverman)? In the sequel film Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018), the glitchy but sweet racer gives her titular reformed villain friend Ralph (John C. Reilly) his very own medal in the only way she knows how: as a delicious-looking cookie.

In this case, Vanellope’s medal is what appears to be a heart-shaped sugar cookie with white and blue icing and a sprinkle of multi-colored nonpareils. While Vanellope and Ralph end up separated at the end of the movie, their friendship is still strong; that must be one delicious cookie.

Kronk’s Spinach Puffs (‘The Emperor’s New Groove’)

Now we’re getting closer to dinner time in Walt Disney World (the conceptual universe, not the theme park), but before we sit down for our entree in the Magic Kingdom (again, conceptually), we’ll have to have some appetizers, like civilized people.

To start with, we would absolutely recommend the fabled (and very delicate) spinach puffs prepared by Kronk (Patrick Warburton), the well-meaning and dimwitted henchman of the incredibly elderly villain Yzma (Eartha Kitt). Early in The Emperor’s New Groove (2000), Yzma invites Incan Emperor Cuzco (David Spade) to dinner in order to poison him and seize power, as one does.

Now, we are not going to get into the fact that spinach was first cultivated in southwest Asia and likely not brought to the Americas until at least the 16th century because that would just be silly. However, we can definitely state the fact that Kronk’s spinach puffs look steamily delicious, and you should definitely, absolutely not tell him otherwise.

The (Non-Human) Dumpling (‘Bao’)

Now that we’ve had a scrumptiously light, suspiciously anachronistic hors d’oeuvre, we can move on to slightly more substantial fare. In this case, we will have a plate of baozi, the culturally Chinese dish seen in the Pixar short film Bao (2018).

We want to be very specific here: we do not mean that one should eat the anthropomorphic child of the main character of the film, who connects her longing for cultural stability and connection to her Canadian-born son with the delicious filled dumpling, even though she does actually eat him at one point. It’s pretty freaky.

However, baozi is an enormously culturally significant food in China and can be served at basically any meal with all sorts of filling; everything from char siu (barbecue pork), egg custard, sweet bean paste, or tangy pickles can be part of a bao. Don’t eat too much, however, because next, we have…

Disney Spaghetti & Meatballs, Served in an Alley (‘Lady and the Tramp’)

For our next course, we have perhaps the most iconic Disney food in all of the Magic Kingdom‘s storied history: a plate of spaghetti and meatballs served in an alleyway, eaten by two stray dogs.

We kid, of course. While the diners in this particular romantic setting are indeed of the canine variety, it cannot be denied that quite a lot of care went into this meal; the waiters at the restaurant frequented by the Tramp (Larry Roberts) seem very invested in the dinner experience of these two dogs.

And lest one thinks that this is the last course of our Disney film meal, it should be known that in most traditional Italian meals, pasta is not served as the entree. Instead, a meal of spaghetti (a form of pasta that would not become truly popular in Italy until the 19th century) would be served as “primo,” i.e., the first main course of an extended repast.

And for the next Disney food…

Ratatouille of Times Past ‘Ratatouille’

Finally, the main course! For this one, we will highlight perhaps the single most gorgeous dish in all of the history of the Walt Disney Company: the titular ratatouille served at Gusteau’s, the legendary Parisian restaurant in Ratatouille (2007).

There’s a reason why the dish served to restaurant critic Anton Ego (Peter O’Toole) by Remy the Rat (Patton Oswalt) looks so spectacular. It was designed by Thomas Keller of The French Laundry, arguably the greatest living chef; he is the only American to have received three Michelin stars at two different restaurants simultaneously. His establishments currently hold seven Michelin stars (generally held to be the highest honor in the culinary world) between them.

The irony of having one of the greatest culinary talents in the world designed a dish of ratatouille is purposefully ironic, as the stew of eggplant, zucchini, and tomatoes is traditionally something of a comfort food more akin to mac and cheese or a chicken pot pie than haute cuisine that someone like Anton Ego would normally expect.

And certainly, that’s the point: in tasting this simple yet elevated dish, Ego is transported back in time (Marcel Proust-like) to the kind of moment of comfort and love that can only be found in a meal prepared with true care.

Excuse us, we’ll just be emotional for a moment while we move on to our final Disney food dish…

Honey Beignets (‘The Princess and the Frog’)

Dessert, at last! We can think of nothing more unimaginably mouthwatering than the beignets served by aspiring New Orleans restauranteur Tiana (Anika Noni Rose) in The Princess and the Frog (2009). Just look at them. Just look.

Beignets are a Louisiana dish (by way of France, but who’s counting) that is essentially fried dough drizzled with delectable sweetness and served for dessert, breakfast, or literally any time. Traditionally, beignets are heavily dusted with powdered sugar, making Tiana’s honey drizzle her own personal stylistic touch.

Now that you’ve seen all the best Disney food, what’s your favorite? Let us know in the comments below!