LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – Not every great dining experience at Walt Disney World comes with a park ticket requirement — and when that experience also happens to feature one of the most impressive South African wine selections in the country, that’s not a bonus.
It’s a destination.
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Jiko — The Cooking Place at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge is marking 25 years of authentic African-inspired cuisine.
The Disney Eats Supper Club, an exclusive, invite-only media and influencer dining series, honored the milestone with a course-by-course culinary journey across the African continent.
The restaurant’s reputation speaks for itself — Jiko boasts one of the largest selections of South African wines in the United States.
“This year we got put back into Wine Spectator. We haven’t been in since COVID. So it’s a huge honor for us to get in outstanding wine program,” said Bryon Kelly, sommelier at Walt Disney World.
Here’s how the evening unfolded.
Ziada: Chef’s African inspired selection
The evening opened with a single, elegant bite designed to set the tone. Chef de Cuisine Eddie Mendoza presented an oil-poached potato with ram’s head mushroom — also known as hen of the woods — roasted in a wood-fire oven, finished with black garlic, pickled mustard seeds, sweet peppers and pea tendrils.
“You get the smokiness, you get some of that crunch and the acidity from the mustard seeds that’s going to cure everything up and some of the dirtiness from the mushroom,” Mendoza said.
It was earthy, bright and an excellent preview of what was ahead.
Bread service: Giraffe bread, baobab butter
Before the first course arrived, the table was treated to one of Jiko’s most charming traditions — giraffe bread, a Dutch crunch-style loaf whose crackled, reticulated rice crust naturally mimics the pattern of a giraffe’s coat.
Alongside it: a baobab butter. The fruit of the iconic African baobab tree is dried into a powder, rehydrated with heavy cream and folded into butter, lending it a subtle tanginess reminiscent of goat cheese. Finished with cocoa powder and sea salt, it was a surprisingly complex and memorable bite.
Duo: Diver scallop with pork belly, West African koki corn
The appetizer course was a masterclass in storytelling through food. The West African koki corn — inspired by a traditional Cameroonian dish — arrived looking strikingly like a tamale, intentionally so.
“Corn did not originate in Africa,” Mendoza noted. “But it played such an integral part. After it was planted and introduced, in Cameroon, they came up with this idea of mixing fresh corn, corn dough... and made something very local.”
Jiko’s version features cashew cheese, mushroom tibs and greens wrapped in corn, served alongside a seared diver scallop with sumac-roasted pork belly, fennel crisp and an avocado-tomatillo sauce — drawing flavors from Cameroon all the way to North Africa in a single plate.
Muhula: Seasonal house-made intermezzo
A guava sorbet with African violas arrived as a palate cleanser — and with it, another lesson in African food history. Guava isn’t native to Africa, but it became synonymous with the continent after Portuguese and Dutch explorers relied on the vitamin-rich fruit to ward off scurvy during their voyages around the Cape of Good Hope.
Light, floral and refreshing, it was a brief but beautiful pause between courses.
Entrée: Seared venison
The chosen entrée for the evening — herb-crusted venison with coriander-roasted cauliflower purée, celery root, leek and cherry belle radish — was clean, intentional and grounded.
Mendoza kept it simple but purposeful, noting that the celery root is coated in coriander and salt, roasted whole and finished with mussels — no heavy cream in sight, a nod to the Florida heat and a respect for letting the ingredients speak for themselves.
Dessert: Trio of potjie pot, malva pudding, melktert
The finale arrived as three miniature desserts, each one a different lens through which to see South Africa.
First, the melktert — milk custard topped with cinnamon cream and passion fruit blueberry sauce, it rests on a roasted corn chocolate and corn flake crumble base. Its shape pays tribute to Table Mountain, one of South Africa’s most iconic landmarks.
Next, the potjie pot — inspired by the cast-iron skillet used for open-fire cooking across the continent. Layers of olive oil cake, milk chocolate mousse with basil, salt and caramel are topped with a coconut wheel “lid” and a passion fruit crunch.
Finally, malva pudding. A traditional South African cake soaked in Amarula syrup — a beloved African cream liqueur — served warm, topped with caramel ice cream and a small chocolate bird. That bird, it turns out, is a nod to the flock of birds that soars across Jiko’s ceiling, connecting the dessert to the space itself.
The final bite
The evening ended with qumbe — a traditional East African candy made with coconut, almond flour, sugar and coconut milk, rolled in coconut and topped with a benne seed wafer shaped like a shield, a nod to the iconic shields found throughout Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge.