It’s here: One of French Lick Resort’s favorite holiday
traditions, the grand 6-by-7-by-8-foot gingerbread house, has been rolled out for
display in the Event Center. In case you missed it, a recent blog post detailed
the behind-the-scenes story of the gingerbread house and its construction, and
you can read about it here.
Just like making gingerbread at home, one of the best parts is
eating the scraps. So here’s a few extras to nibble on. Some more fun
background and side notes about the gingerbread house from pastry chef Dalyn
Roney, who heads up the massive project:
On being surrounded by the rich gingerbread aroma day after
day: “I’m kind of nose blind to it. It’s like when I go down to the floral
department, and they say they don’t smell (the flowers).”
On problem-solving during construction: “Last year the main thing we couldn’t do that ended up keeping me up for weeks was trying to figure out how to make these corbels, the curly Q's you see at the top of columns and ceilings. We knew we wanted to make it out of cereal treats, because then it wouldn’t be so heavy that it would just fall off. We tried at first, but then you couldn’t see all the intricacy and carvings and definition. We tried all these different things, and then I woke up at 4:00 in the morning and I’m like, ‘ah-hah!’ We decided to pack fondant in the mold. We packed it just like when you transfer pie crust to a pie tin. We put fondant in first, packed it in, made cereal treats so they were light and then packed them in carefully, trimmed it, turned it, shook it out. It worked, and we started squealing, and it made people jump. I hurried up and wrote it down so we would remember for following years.”
On problem-solving during construction: “Last year the main thing we couldn’t do that ended up keeping me up for weeks was trying to figure out how to make these corbels, the curly Q's you see at the top of columns and ceilings. We knew we wanted to make it out of cereal treats, because then it wouldn’t be so heavy that it would just fall off. We tried at first, but then you couldn’t see all the intricacy and carvings and definition. We tried all these different things, and then I woke up at 4:00 in the morning and I’m like, ‘ah-hah!’ We decided to pack fondant in the mold. We packed it just like when you transfer pie crust to a pie tin. We put fondant in first, packed it in, made cereal treats so they were light and then packed them in carefully, trimmed it, turned it, shook it out. It worked, and we started squealing, and it made people jump. I hurried up and wrote it down so we would remember for following years.”
On tasting the colors: “I had never had real gingerbread
before I came here, and I quickly learned that I like the red gingerbread
better, and the only difference is the food coloring. So apparently red food
coloring tastes delicious. I didn’t know that, because I obviously don’t eat it
in large quantities, unless it’s gingerbread.”
On mixing food with flair: “I’m Hawaiian, so my mother was a
professional hula dancer for many years when she was in college, and my father
took over his father’s theater company. They met in college in Hawaii, so I was
just born to try to make people laugh and smile and create things. I am child 4
of 6, so I have this innate middle-child syndrome to try to outdo my very
successful siblings. I’m really trying to have that ‘wow’ factor. I love music
and I sing and I perform and all those things, but I’m very shy, so a long time
ago I decided maybe I could express my art through food, because then people
don’t see me – but they can see my food and see what I can do.”
On tearing down the gingerbread house after the holidays: “People always say, ‘Does it make you sad to throw it away at the end of the year?’ I’m like, ‘Are you kidding?’ We’re like being ninjas and punching out sugar windows and being like, ‘Yeah, die!’ There’s a very strong love-hate relationship. Any time you spend that much time on something, you’re done. You’re ready for it to go.”
On tearing down the gingerbread house after the holidays: “People always say, ‘Does it make you sad to throw it away at the end of the year?’ I’m like, ‘Are you kidding?’ We’re like being ninjas and punching out sugar windows and being like, ‘Yeah, die!’ There’s a very strong love-hate relationship. Any time you spend that much time on something, you’re done. You’re ready for it to go.”
On the economics of the gingerbread house: “The amount of
money actually spent on ingredients (last year) was less than 650 bucks, which
is really affordable, when you think about it. And that’s the benefit of making
it ourselves. I wanted to be able to bring products
made in-house, practice those candy-making skills and do all those things, and
that keeps the cost down. It’s just like doing custom cabinetry in your home …
it takes skilled labor, but when we can, we want to be able to teach those
skills and figure it out ourselves. That’s how all of us get better at what
we’re doing.”
On specializing in sweets: “That’s why I love dessert, because
people are so picky about their food: They don’t like parsley; they’re allergic
to everything; they don’t like anything that’s green. But everyone loves
dessert.”