Behind the Scenes of Planning the 2025 EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival With EPCOT Chef de Cuisine Kevin Downing
The delicious taste of Spring at EPCOT 🌼
Spring is in full bloom at Walt Disney World, and EPCOT’s International Flower & Garden Festival 2025 is bursting with color, creativity, and flavor!
I recently had the pleasure of meeting the EPCOT Chef de Cuisine, Kevin Downing, who gave us an inside scoop on what’s in store for the 2025 festival.
From globally inspired garden-fresh dishes to creative culinary twists you won’t find anywhere else, this conversation dives into the festival’s inspiration and what it really takes to feed thousands of guests with magic and intention.
Whether you’ve strolled through the topiaries and outdoor kitchens of the EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival in years past, or this is your first time hearing about it, you’re in for a treat!
Join me for a behind-the-scenes look at how Disney blends flavor, storytelling, and seasonal magic.
Let’s dig in 🌿🍴
1. Tell us about your role at Disney as the EPCOT Chef de Cuisine.
Chef Kevin Downing: I am the Chef de Cuisine for the EPCOT Festival team.
My role is specifically related to the four festivals we put on here at EPCOT throughout the year.
We look at our outdoor kitchens and menu offerings and then try to walk a fine line between what we know our guests want to see return and giving them new offerings because we know our guests are looking for a mix of both.
People come to Walt Disney World every year to see some of those fan-favorite dishes they've had year after year. But we also want to continue pushing our festivals, content, and menus forward.
We want to challenge our cast members to create and cook new items while challenging our guests' palates.
2. How have guests’ food preferences changed over the last decade?
Chef Kevin Downing: Food is a big part of guests' vacations at Walt Disney World.
As the American palette has changed, guests are looking for more adventurous offerings.
There was a time when Walt Disney World was known for chicken nuggets and turkey legs. Now, you can come to Walt Disney World and get Michelin-star dining.
Our guests want to experience something new and different, not just their favorite Mickey ice cream bar or turkey leg.
We've also seen many dietary needs come forward.
Today, many guests are looking for plant-based and gluten-free offerings.
3. What has been a source of inspiration for your team’s creations this year?
Chef Kevin Downing: The overarching thought process for the EPCOT International Flower and Garden Festival is the best of the season, the best that Mother Nature can provide.
We want to keep things simple and have easily relatable dishes for our guests with families and kids, but we also want to push their palettes.
We like to challenge our cast members to make plates look beautiful.
Walking around the Flower & Garden Festival, you will see edible herbs and flowers on plates. We make them look, in many cases, like a little garden.
What makes this festival unique is the number of plant-based offerings we provide and not only the impossible meat product.
We provide a lot of plant-based offerings during this festival.
It is part of what we call our “Garden Graze,” which is our stroll.
Every festival has a stroll activity where guests can go around and sample, in this case, plant-based offerings.
Try five plant-based offerings and get a little prize at the end of your journey.
We try to include several plant-based offerings in every festival, but they really come front and center during the EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival.
I've always enjoyed the Farmers' Feast.
Farmers' Feast is the only outdoor kitchen where we change the menu mid-festival.
Right now, we're in our late winter menu.
So we're featuring a lovely asparagus salad with a truffle sherry vinaigrette, some pancetta and peas, and a poached egg.
We have our English pea risotto with seared scallops and a little lemon beurre blanc.
We then have a blueberry crumble cake with blueberry compote and blueberry gelato. So, it's really seasonal for this time.
And then, by April, it'll change to an entirely new menu.
That's unique for this festival and a surprise for our guests.
When you come back in May, we will have another new menu.
It gives our guests reasons to come back and sample something new. It's the only festival where we do that.
4. Why visit Disney World during the EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival?
Chef Kevin Downing: When you walk around EPCOT during Flower & Garden, the park is beautiful and inspiring.
It's one of my favorite festivals just because of that.
When you go home, you might be inspired to go to your local farmer's market and try fresh ingredients instead of going to the big jumbo grocery stores.
That's what this festival is about more than any other; it is about looking around for what you already have in your own backyard.
Sometimes, we forget that everywhere, no matter where you live, has seasonal opportunities and offerings.
You have local farmers, dairy farmers, meat purveyors, butcher shops, and bakeries.
People are going more local and looking for boutique experiences. Attending this festival is a good introduction for our guests.
I hope you enjoyed this interview!
The EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival runs from March 5th to June 2nd.
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