We Paid $29 for DESSERT in EPCOT…Was It Worth It?

Wait, so we can eat a bunch of cheese-filled dishes AND win a prize at the end of the cheesy food crawl at the EPCOT Food & Wine Festival? SIGN US UP!

Emile’s Fromage Montage

The 2024 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival has officially started, and there’s so much to do! There are tons of tasty eats to try, souvenirs to purchase and even concerts to watch. But one of our favorite parts about this festival is Emile’s Fromage Montage, or — as we call it –the cheese crawl. Come check it out!

Emile’s Fromage Montage is an EPCOT challenge that only comes around during Food & Wine time. To participate, you’ll buy any 5 of the featured dishes in the “crawl,” and then once you’ve collected the 5 corresponding stamps, you’ll get a special prize. There are lots of items to pick from, but you only need to buy 5 in order to get your prize.

First, pick up a Festival Passport. These are free, and you can grab one at either entrance to EPCOT. (If you don’t see them, ask a Cast Member or stop by guest relations.) Make sure that you get your Festival Passport stamped each time you buy a qualifying item.

Don’t forget to get those stamps!

Once you’ve ordered the dish at one of the food booths, just ask the Cast Member to stamp your passport. When you’ve got all 5 stamps, bring that stamped Festival Passport to the Shimmering Sips Marketplace hosted by CORKCICLE for your prize.

Shimmering Sips 2023

The 2024 menu items and locations for Emile’s Fromage Montage are:

The Alps Marketplace
Any Warm Swiss Cheese Raclette
Brazil Marketplace
Pão de Queijo
Festival Favorites
BBQ Pork Rinds (NEW)
Forest & Field
Pumpkin Mascarpone Ravioli (NEW)
Greece Marketplace
Griddled Cheese
Hawaiʻi Marketplace
Passion Fruit Cheesecake
Macatizers
Any Macaroni & Cheese
Milled and Mulled
Boursin® Fig & Balsamic Cheesecake (NEW)
Spain Marketplace
Spanish Charcuterie
Germany Marketplace
Schinkennudeln

First, we tried the new BBQ Pork Rinds at the new booth Festival favorites for $5. Our pork rinds had a great coating of barbecue flavor that was a little hotter than regular barbecue sauce, but still fairly low heat. The cheese was super creamy, greasy, rich, and DELICIOUS. This was our favorite option at Festival Favorites!

BBQ Pork Rinds served with pimento cheese

Then, we checked out the new Pumpkin Mascarpone Ravioli at Forest & Fire for $5.25. It’s made with sage-brown butter, pecorino cheese, and hazelnut praline, and it was AWESOME. The pumpkin ravioli itself was good, with a solid amount of sweet pumpkin and mascarpone filling that was pleasant but mild. But, the hazelnut praline just elevated this dish into something else entirely. It’s easily a Best of the Fest contender this year!

Pumpkin Mascarpone Ravioli

Next up, the new Boursin® Fig & Balsamic Cheesecake for $4.75 at Milled and Mulled. Initially, we were somewhat dubious about how fig and balsamic flavors would work with cheesecake flavors, but they all melded together deliciously. We do suggest eating it quickly and in the shade because it will melt in the sun!

Boursin® Fig & Balsamic Cheesecake

Over at the new booth Macatizers, we tried the Truffle Mac & Cheese for $6.50 There are SEVERAL varieties of mac & cheese at this booth, but the Truffle Mac & Cheese really surprised us! The truffle was subtle but adds an interesting textural element — it’s not too overpowering which you sometimes find with truffle.

Truffle Macaroni and Cheese

You can’t go wrong with a charcuterie board in Spain for $6.50! This is a great adult “lunchable.” It features Jamón, Manchego, and pan con tomate, and we enjoyed it.

Spanish Charcuterie

We’ve had the Griddled Cheese from the Greece pavilion before and this year it costs $5. The cheese was great and ooey gooey! It went so well with the honey and pistachios that are drizzled on top of it.

Griddled Cheese with pistachios and honey

We also picked up the Passion Fruit Cheesecake at the Hawaiʻi Marketplace for $5. We had this last year, and we continued to enjoy it again this year! It’s served with toasted Macadamia nuts and is light and fluffy.

Passion Fruit Cheesecake

You can’t do a cheese tour at the Food & Wine Festival without getting the Warm Swiss Cheese Raclette! This is $5.75, and

Warm Swiss Cheese Raclette

The last cheese dish we grabbed was the Schinkennudeln from the Germany booth for $5.25. This is always a favorite of ours! You get tons of delicious flavors in a hearty dish, and it is sure to fill you up, so grab it while you’re hungry.

Schinkennudeln

Our passport is full of stamps, so now let’s go to Shimmering Sips to collect our prize! This year, the prize was blueberry cheesecake soft serve with a piece of cheesecake on top served in a souvenir cup featuring Emile himself. Yes, the prize is CHEESE CAKE! We just won at life!

Completer Prize

So what do we think? Is the cheese crawl worth the prize? Well, if you love cheese, the answer is “YES!” Who doesn’t need an excuse to eat a TON of cheese and get cheesecake in a fun souvenir cup as a reward? Isn’t that just #lifegoals? So even though we technically paid over $29 for this prize (if you add up the price of all the items in the cheese crawl), we thought it was 100% worth it, especially since we enjoyed all of the items that were in the crawl.

Food and Wine Festival (2022)

Remember that you don’t have to pick the items that we chose! You can choose from any of the cheesy snacks listed in your Festival Passport that are marked “Emile’s Fromage Montage.”

Trying to plan the PERFECT trip to the 2024 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival? We’ll be keeping you updated on all of the latest. Click our links below for the information you need to know:

Click here to see FULL reviews of EVERY. SINGLE. BOOTH. at the Food & Wine Festival!

And don’t forget to pick up our 2024 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival e-book! See more details about the book below.

IT'S WINE & DINE TIME!

Food & Wine Festival can be a bummer. You stand in line waiting for what looks like the perfect treat, and it's a bust. But fear not, dear friends, we compiled EVERYTHING you need (and the things to avoid!) to plan the ULTIMATE EPCOT Food & Wine Festival experience.

If you're planning a day or a week at the festival, we've got every performance, activity, and tasty nosh detailed out so you can make the most of your time and money. Listen, it's a tough job eating and documenting the nearly 200 bites and sips, but we do it all for YOU!