Ratatouille Themed Dinner Night

Bonjour!  This week, we are immersing ourselves in the Walt Disney film, Ratatouille with our very own Ratatouille Themed Dinner!  Ratatouille is a movie about a rat in Paris who has a remarkable ability to cook.  The film celebrates French cuisine and the love of cooking as told by Remy, a rat who faces the daily challenges of tiny varmint in a big city.  We love this film, and I always get HUNGRY watching it!  Remy crafts incredible dishes in the movie, so I set out to recreate some of that magic in my own kitchen with recipes inspired by the film.  Follow along, and I will walk you through how we created our very own Ratatouille Themed Dinner!

Download a printable version of our Ratatouille Menu here:

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Hors d’oeuvres (Starters)

To start things off, I took inspiration from Remy’s experiments pairing different cheeses with fruits.  Remy marveled at how the creamy, salty, nuttiness from the cheese contrasted with the sweet, crisp, tang of the fruit and created a whole new taste experience.  So, for our hors d’oeuvres, I served some grapes with an assortment of cheeses.  To keep your Ratatouille Themed Dinner as authentic to the film as possible, try serving up some French cheeses if you can find them at your local grocery store.  Brie, Camembert, and Comté are lovely choices!

Creamy, salty-sweet, an oaky nuttiness…You detect that?  – Oh, I’m detecting nuttiness…

Accompagnements (Sides)

For our first side, I knew we HAD to have Remy’s soup that earned him his reputation as a chef.  But what WAS that mystery soup Remy quickly but expertly threw together in the kitchen?  I scoured the internet to find answers and came across this recipe from Out of the Ordinary Food.  Claire has done exhaustive research to determine the precise ingredients Remy used in his soup and created a great recipe to make Remy himself proud!  I was a little worried the recipe would be TOO spicy as it calls for 1 tsp of red pepper flakes, but the creaminess really mellowed it out and it was a hit with the family!  My 13-year-old even requested seconds. 

The soup was a revelation.  A spicy yet subtle taste experience.

Next up on the menu, ratatouille of course!  I’ve never had the dish myself.  Honestly, I’ve never even HEARD of it until I saw this movie.  I knew we absolutely had to include the movie’s namesake on our menu, but I was really worried about how it would go over with the kiddos.  It’s basically a BIG BOWL OF VEGGETABLES!  But I got busy in the kitchen to whip up the dish.  I used the recipe from Ratatouille: What’s Cooking?  A Cookbook For Kids.  This cookbook contains Ratatouille-inspired recipes such as Remy’s Famous Omelets and Emile’s Sewer Sandwiches.  Kids will also love the adorable artwork of our favorite rats cooking in the kitchen. You can order this cookbook from Amazon by clicking HERE!

While this cookbook is intended for children, I have to say I was VERY HAPPY with how Gusteau’s Ratatouille turned out!  The addition of fresh basil gave the dish SO MUCH FLAVOR!  I was surprised to hear that my 13-year-old (who can’t stand veggies) actually liked it!  My four-year-old finished hers as well, with minimal reminders that it needed to be gone if she wanted to enjoy our special dessert (more on that later!).  All in all, Ratatouille (healthy as it may be) is really tasty!

Ratatouille?  But that is a peasant dish!

Le Plat Principal (Main Dish)

I wanted to stick with our French theming for our main entrée.  For this reason, I was incredibly happy to stumble upon this recipe for Beef Short Ribs from Chefs de France in Epcot’s World Showcase.  You can find the official Disney recipe at AllEars.net.

This recipe calls for 12 hours of marinating, then two and a half hours of cook time in the oven.  I opted to prepare the short ribs in the crockpot rather than the oven.  After marinating, I seared the meat on all sides in a hot pan over the stove.  Once seared, I transferred the short ribs, marinade, and juices from the pan to the crockpot and set it to LOW.  I let the meat slow cook for about 6 hours until it was nice and tender.  They turned out great!  I have never had the chance to dine at Chefs de France in Epcot, so I loved that I could prepare this recipe right in my own home to get a taste of that dining experience.  These short ribs made a great accompaniment to the ratatouille. 

Le Dessert (Dessert)

Ahhhhh dessert.  The French don’t mess around when it comes to their sweets.  For this particular Disney Themed Dinner, I took the easy route and picked up an assortment of macarons from our local bakery.  I figured it was a good idea to leave the preparation of this treat to the professionals.  If you are looking for other French dessert options, you could also try crème brulee, chocolate soufflé, or even eclairs.  You can’t go wrong!   

Le Cocktail (Cocktail)

While perusing the Disney Parks Blog, I stumbled across this Ratatouille-inspired cocktail recipe from Disney Cruise Line!  The ‘Colette’ Champagne Cocktail is served at Remy, the French-inspired fine dining establishment aboard Disney’s Dream and Fantasy Cruise Ships.  This recipe calls for champagne, vodka, and orange-flavored liqueur as well as a garnish of crème de cassis pearls and dried pineapple cubes.  I decided to shake things up a bit (literally and figuratively) and create my own twist on this recipe. 

As we all know, champagne is EXPENSIVE, so I opted for a prosecco instead.  I also swapped out the vodka for a citrus vodka to help brighten up the cocktail.  For my orange-flavored liqueur, I grabbed a bottle of Grand Marnier (it IS French after all!) as the cognac provided a little more depth of flavor.  The Disney Cruise Line recipe doesn’t explicitly say to chill your spirits before combining with the champagne, but I think adding warm spirits to cold bubbly would be a MISTAKE!  So, I shook the vodka and Grand Marnier with some ice in a Boston shaker before combining with the Prosecco.  Rather than go hunting for crème de cassis pearls and dried pineapple, I simply garnished the cocktail with what I had on hand…an orange zest!  Here is my recipe below:

Ingredients:

•  ½ oz Grand Marnier
• ½ oz Citrus Vodka
• 4oz Prosecco
• Orange Zest

Directions:

Fill Boston shaker with ice and add Grand Marnier and Citrus Vodka.  Shake until chilled, then strain into champagne flute.  Top with Prosecco and garnish with the zest from an orange.  Enjoy!

À votre santé!

I hope you enjoyed reading about our Ratatouille Themed Dinner Night!  We always look forward to our themed Disney dinners because it makes movie night extra special. 

Looking for other Disney Themed Dinner ideas?  Check out our Lady and the Tramp Dinner HERE or our Princess and the Frog Dinner HERE.

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