After a few months of refurbishment, the Agrabah Café has reopened on June 3rd! The perfect opportunity to highlight the expertise of Noura, a specialist maker of Middle Eastern delicacies which supplies the restaurant every day. The restaurant itself is found in the enchanting maze of an ancient Arabian bazaar at the gates of Adventureland.
Since June 3rd, Disneyland Paris guests can once again enjoy all kinds of Middle Eastern specialties at the restaurant Agrabah Café! The resort has been working with caterer Noura for over fifteen years to delight guests’ taste buds, and its workshop is located in Noisy le Grand, at about twenty minutes. We went to meet the teams that make up this family business founded in 1989 by the father of the current manager, Walid Bou Antoun, which proudly makes all its products the artisanal way.
This collaboration is part of the resort’s engagement to choose local, artisanal suppliers. The objective was to identify a specialist producer of Middle Eastern delicacies capable of making the iconic restaurant an even more immersive experience, inviting guests right into the world of the animated-movie Aladdin.
All types of culinary experts are present in Noura’s workshop: pastry chefs and bakers, as well as vegetable specialists or butchers. As Middle Eastern pastry-making is a skill passed down from one generation to the next, Noura’s teams make it a point of honor to make everything themselves like the hand-rolled phyllo pastry or the date maamouls moulded in a wooden mould.
But the collaboration with Noura isn’t limited to desserts. The savory specialties are also widely praised by guests who eat at the restaurant Agrabah Café, including the rikakats, classic Lebanese mezzes made up of hand-rolled Brik pastry and fresh cheese with a mixture of parsley, mint and onion.
Noura’s products are prepared and delivered daily to meet demand from the Agrabah Café kitchens. This ensures the quality and freshness are perfect and avoids food waste, while the most niche products, such as sesame cream, spices, rose water and orange blossom, are imported from Lebanon to guarantee quality.
Purchasing at Disneyland Paris: a strategy focusing on local and excellence
As Europe’s leading tourist destination, Disneyland Paris has played a key role in the development and vitality of the surrounding region for more than 30 years. Since its opening in France, the resort has put in place an ambitious purchasing strategy to work with trusted suppliers and their unique expertise. Today, the company has engaged in long-term collaborations with more than 2,800 French suppliers, including more than 1,800 based in the Ile-de-France region.