This summer, Disneyland is celebrating its 70th anniversary. But, if you ask Club 33 and 21 Royal chef de cuisine Gloria Tae, she’s already looking forward to the holidays.

“For the Club, the big one for us is Candlelight. Candlelight [Processional] weekend that’s when we’re completely booked out,” Tae told SFGATE. “They’re projecting to do over 1,300 covers in two days for both lunch and dinner.”

For non-Disney fanatics, Tae, who marks her own 25th anniversary working for Disneyland next year, is talking about Club 33, the park’s member-exclusive restaurant and lounge in New Orleans Square, at the Anaheim, Calif., resort. The first was envisioned by Walt Disney as a hidden-away space for entertaining VIPs in and opened in 1967.

“Candlelight” refers to the Candlelight Processional, a holiday concert that has happened annually at the park since 1958. The two-night performance takes place atop Disneyland Railroad’s Main Street Station in December. It features a full orchestra, several local choirs and a surprise celebrity narrator, like Kathryn Hahn in 2024, who reads a rendition of the Christmas story. Since the event is invite-only, the exact dates are not released to the public, but it’s usually the first weekend of the month.

For the holidays, Tae predicted Club 33’s menu will lean toward the classics.

“Chateaubriand or French onion soup,” she said. “I like the feeling of Christmastime. That’s when we get all the families in. Since so many members have been there for so long, the families have actually grown up inside the Club. It’s lovely to see them, and to hear them, and talk to them.”

The good cheer is infectious. “No one is disgruntled,” she added. “Everyone wants to be there. It rubs off for sure.”

As chef de cuisine for Club 33 and 21 Royal, a bucket-list dining experience at the park available to the public, Tae oversees the menus and manages a team of three salaried sous chefs, a couple hourly junior sous chefs (“area chefs”), and 18 cooks.

Cooks with talent and finesse are scheduled for 21 Royal, a one-night private dining experience that is rumored to cost upward of $20,000 for 12 guests. But they all split their time preparing dishes for Club 33’s Le Grand Salon or Le Salon Nouveau. The menu for Le Grand Salon is seasonal and prix fixe. Le Salon Nouveau is where the club’s more casual dishes are served.

Members have a strong sense of ownership over the club. Etiquette rules, dress codes, restricted social media posts. It’s all part of the deal when dining at Club 33, whether you’re part of the ultraexpensive club, or lucky enough to be an invited guest. Members get attached to certain dishes and some are very vocal. Listening to them, Tae indulged requests for Walt’s Chili and the lounge’s famous onion rings to return to the menu.

“Then we started changing things,” she said with a grin.

Tae’s ability to convince diners to try something new is one of her strengths no small feat when serving people who have a decades-long emotional attachment to the restaurant. She listens. She hears their requests. The members wanted steak at night and a sandwich on the menu, so she brought those items back. But she still maintains her standards.

Fortunately, Tae has an ally: the culinary director of Disneyland signature restaurants, chef Andrew Sutton. He oversees the fine dining restaurants at the parks, which includes Napa Rose at the Grand Californian, Carthay Circle in Disney California Adventure, and Club 33 and 21 Royal in Disneyland Park. He also saw Tae’s potential 25 years ago. He promoted her at Golden Vine. Then moved her to Napa Rose. Tae helped open Carthay Circle before returning to oversee Napa Rose again. For nearly four years, she’s been chef de cuisine at Club 33 and 21 Royal.

The old club menu was a hodgepodge, admitted Tae. Before Sutton’s culinary team took over, the food was a French-Cajun mashup, reflecting the club’s location in New Orleans Square. Now, the menu isn’t beholden to a particular region.

“Just as long as we can make the dishes taste good, people will be open to whatever path we want to go,” explained Tae. “But I know our guests.”

Though she launched the Club’s first plant-based menu on July 10, Tae knows to stock up on meat.

“For people who say vegetarianism and veganism is becoming more popular, beef eaters are still around,” she said. “It’s comfort food and they also feel value. They want to get full value for their meal so I think naturally people tend to gravitate towards beef.”

Tae’s own ascent in the kitchen began with shaping beef patties at a hamburger stand. Instead of attending culinary school, she learned on the job, and found her way to the now-closed Golden Vine Winery at Disney California Adventure. The restaurant’s winery partner was originally Robert Mondavi Corp. However, eight months after opening, Mondavi pulled out of the project. In 2001, according to Wine Spectator, Mondavi took a $12 million to $13 million loss and Disney took over operations of the restaurant.

Then the chef de cuisine moved out of state, so Sutton asked Tae to step up. “I was just really fortunate that happened,” she said.

There were struggles along the way, and the restaurant floundered in the post-9/11 economy. “The vineyard room just wasn’t popular,” Tae recalled. “Nobody liked the idea of spending that much getting into the park. Then another $100 for a meal. That was way back when.”

Times have changed. Now, an evening at 21 Royal books up months in advance through a dedicated concierge.

Considered an experience more than simply a meal, the evening includes a VIP escort from the Grand Californian Hotel that leads the party to a discreet location above the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction. Upon arrival, “professional butlers” serve signature cocktails in the salon. The evening continues with canapes on the patio, which overlooks the Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer Island. Guests wander through the ornate 19th century-inspired Empire-style dwelling that Walt and Lillian Disney envisioned as a family apartment inside the park. The suite isn’t available for overnight stays but still features a bathtub and bedrooms. The dining room table is dressed with “white linens, fresh flowers and set with gold-plated dinnerware and fine crystal,” according to Disney’s website.

This is where Tae showcases her culinary talents. Her multidecade relationship to local purveyors allows her to keep the menus exciting. Right now, it’s California white bass season. The fish are coming off the Channel Islands.

“You can’t get any more local than that for us. That’s another fun tidbit that we share with our guests,” she said.

Tae acknowledged that these days guests are more informed about food and drink than ever before. “It’s fun to stump them a little,” she admitted. “Some are very knowledgeable and some have no idea. It’s fun to teach people something. Especially when we’re able to back it up by having it taste good as well.”

Theme parks are known for corn dogs, churros and popcorn. But Tae encourages the next generation of chefs to consider forging a path in Disney’s fine dining kitchens. She speaks from experience.

“Honestly, I don’t know where my career would’ve been,” Tae admitted.

Along with chef Alex Flores of Carthay Circle and chef Clint Chin of Napa Rose, “We’ve learned so much from Chef [Sutton]. ... He’s always taught us about learning technique and not taking shortcuts. For a while, we were all on ballotines [making entrees of deboned poultry stuffed with a savory filling]. Goose, duck, it was like, why are we wrapping stuff? But we got good at it.”

Last year, Tae was recognized by the California State Assembly for her career achievements, which include being Disney’s first female Club 33 chef de cuisine. Yet she continues to look forward.

When Napa Rose reopens this fall after its major remodel, she hopes it will ignite interest in the park’s signature dining offerings. “I hope the younger cooks can take that further along because some of them have mad skills. All they have to do is apply themselves and they can go far. Especially here: Disney is constantly evolving and growing,” she said.

Internally, the team is celebrated for its culinary prowess. But it’s difficult to shake the perception of theme park food. “Even though we spout it and talk about it quite a bit,” Tae said of the park’s signature dining offerings, “it’s still not necessarily out there as much as we like. Everyone still thinks we’re churros and corn dogs.”

Even at 21 Royal, Tae can’t escape it.

“Everyone always asks, ‘Can we please get a churro?’” Tae said with a laugh.

After dinner, guests remove to the suite’s private balcony overlooking the Rivers of America, where they’re served hot cocoa and coffee accompanied by an array of pastries, chocolates and confections. The perch is one of the best spots to view the “Fantasmic!” nighttime spectacular. Despite the fanciness, the food cart favorite is still a guest request.

Tae understands. “Everyone is a Disney fanatic at 21 Royal.”