What a treat to slip into the private back room at Kouzzina by Cat Cora at Disney’s BoardWalk and spend a few hours sampling delectable bites from Chef Dee Foundoukis and her team, who run the restaurant when Chef Cat Cora can’t be there.
The Chef’s Menu at CoraNation Room is relatively new, with five courses of Greek-inspired tastes, which you can pair with wines from Cat’s own label for an extra-special treat. “This kind of evening lets us stretch our culinary muscles,” says Chef Dee. “We create dishes from what is freshest at the market each week.”
Chef Dee is a first-generation American, with parents from Greece – her 106-year-old grandfather still tends to his bees in Greece. “My mother taught me how to cook,” says Dee. “Her influences are in all my dishes.”
Up to 24 guests can dine in the CoraNation Room for just one seating on Friday or Saturday nights – and you can choose a table for two, or join a group. “We find that guests enjoy meeting new friends over the meal,” says Chef Dee. “It’s a communal experience.”
With a well-trained staff and passionate chefs, we started our evening with a single, crisp English pea with a bite of poached lobster, served with an espresso cup of chilled pea soup – perfect for sipping. On the same plate, cherry-glazed slices of duck were fanned over leek stifado, the Greek word for stew. Flat-out superb for a starter.
The salad was a work of art – baby lettuce from The Land Pavilion at Epcot with paper-thin slices of radish, smoked baby beets and a bite-size sphere of fennel-dusted goat cheese. The delicate bowl was crisp and edible, light-as-air shredded wheat wrapping the tender lettuce, with a bracing Banyuls-chive vinaigrette. Don’t fill up on the bread – it’s tempting, with the rich Greek olive oils and rich green and black olives.
The “palate refresher,” a shot of chilled watermelon mavrodaphne, a popular Greek red wine, topped with a goat cheese-yogurt foam, prepared us for the generous main course of oak-grilled peppered lavender lamb loin and pan-fried red grouper from Florida with a decadent, golden Kalamata olive oil hollandaise.
The finale was a quartet of sweets: crispy phyllo with fig honey and farmer’s cheese; phoenika (a Greek honey-dipped spice cookie) with chocolate tahini; Greek yogurt panna cotta with berries, and our favorite, a grapefruit ice with slices of zatar-spiced grapefruit and a delicious sprig of sugary, oven-roasted thyme.
If your preference is vegetarian, or if you have any allergies or dietary restrictions, just let the staff know, says manager Vincent Tai. “We’re happy to accommodate,” he says.
Cost is $65 (plus tax and gratuity), $35 for wine pairing.
Have you tried the Chef’s Menu? Share your favorite tastes!
