Building on the medieval European tradition of embellishing gingerbread, executive pastry chef En-Ming Hsu has created a gingerbread fantasy at The Ritz-Carlton Chicago (160 E. Pearson St.). Hsu’s “Gingerbread Wonderland” stands 5 feet tall, 7 feet long and 6 feet wide in the hotel’s 12th floor lobby. The house took a 10-member pastry team more than two months to create.
“It’s like building a dollhouse,” said Hsu, who was named 1997 Pastry Chef of the Year in America at the 7th annual Patisfrance Pastry Competition in New York. The gingerbread house is her largest culinary endeavor yet–and by far the most satisfying, she said, especially when she sees the reactions of young visitors.
“It’s really for children who like to fantasize,” Hsu said.
Her initial vision of a castle was scaled down by the hotel’s carpenters, who designed a plywood frame of a cottage, complete with dormers, windows, doors, a chimney and a balcony. Hsu and her staff made 300 pounds of gingerbread dough, which was rolled out and sheeted by a machine, cut into squares for siding and shingles, then baked. Royal icing was used for the concrete and mortar.
Gingerbread cookies were layered on the sides and roof. Each roof shingle was trimmed with icing and topped with gumdrops, licorice, candy canes, M&M’s and Skittles–1,300 candies in all. Food coloring was added to the gelatin “stained glass” windows, and layered coconut “snow” covers the ground surrounding the house.
“Gingerbread Wonderland” is on display until Jan. 2.
