The History of EPCOT’s Defunct Kitchen Kabaret, Food Rocks

Freshening Up The Land

A decade after the opening of EPCOT Center, Kraft was up for renewal with Disney. The company’s original 10-year sponsorship of The Land Pavilion was expiring. On the 10^th anniversary of EPCOT, that’s exactly what happened—Kraft did not renew its sponsorship, and Disney was looking for a new backer.

Shortly after in November 1992, Nestlé U.S.A. agreed to sponsor The Land Pavilion, effective Jan. 1, 1993. Nestlé’s involvement meant the pavilion would receive extensive renovations over a two-year period. The Land renewal—as the refurb was called—was stated to last through the end of 1994.

“We consider it a corporate image enhancement,” said Laurie MacDonald, Nestlé spokesperson. She stated that Nestlé’s sponsorship of The Land was part of a, “Strategic alliance with Disney.”

Tenured corporate sponsors at EPCOT commented on how the attractions became dated and need to be changed over time. Nestlé was eager to revive The Land, aiming to turn it into a leading-edge pavilion. One Disney publicist even mentioned how The Land needed up-to-date colors. The pavilion’s earth tones were considered too outdated. To emphasize, the earth tones in The Land were going away for something more 1990s.

As a part of the remodel, Kitchen Kabaret got some small, immediate changes; the condiment animatronics were redressed to no longer imply the branding of the former sponsor, Kraft. Kitchen Kabaret remained open for the time being as work began freshening up the pavilion.

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Retiring Kitchen Kabaret

Meanwhile, the United States around this time retired the Basic Four food groups guidelines. The USDA introduced The Food Guide Pyramid—updated recommendations for daily nutrition.

Since the format of Kitchen Kabaret was based on the Basic Four food groups, the show’s content had become spoiled. The nutritional information of Kitchen Kabaret was now outdated.

Disney and Nestlé decided to officially retire Kitchen Kabaret on Jan. 3, 1994.

With Nestlé’s strong appetite for renovating the pavilion, Disney had been working on a new animatronic show for the theater. The upcoming attraction at its core was similar to Kitchen Kabaret with a cast of animatronic food singing about nutrition—but the new version had a spicier take with fresh faces.

“We thought it would be neat to have the different fruits become caricatures of popular musicians and play their songs…Since we were using rock songs, we thought Food Rocks would be a great name for the show.”

– Rolly Crump, Disney Imagineer

The new animatronic concert was written by Imagineer Jim Steinmeyer. The show was themed to an all-star benefit concert promoting good nutrition. The acts were all parodies of popular songs with punny versions of pop stars. The music—headed by George Wilkins—was a playlist of precisely recreated pop songs. Some planned acts were going to be Tina Tuna and Elvis Parsley. The rock band Kiss at one point was considered to play the role of the bad guys.

Significant changes were being made to the show beyond just the script. For example, the set was structurally similar to that of Kitchen Kabaret, but aesthetically redesigned for a more abstract MTV look with large lighting fixtures.

Only one Audio-Animatronic from Kitchen Kabaret—the milk carton—made it into the new show. The rest of the animatronics were new but had limited animations after mostly being installed in the same framework as the previous show.