Gingerbread houses built in good taste in Las Vegas

Max Jacobson

Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2002 | 8:18 a.m.

Las Vegas might not have famous Christmas trees, such as those found on the White House lawn or at Rockefeller Center. But when it comes to gingerbread houses, we take a back seat to no one.

Jean-Luc Daul, executive pastry chef at Four Seasons, is doing his fabulous Gingerbread Village again this year. Besides that one, there are many other places to see and to buy gingerbread houses throughout the area.

First, some history.

Europe has a tradition of using ginger in baking. Dark, rich gingerbread, which uses honey, molasses and flour in addition to the flavorful root, can be soft or firm and eaten hot or cold. It is said the creation of structural gingerbread came into being during the 18th century.

In Germany, it was traditional to build gingerbread houses in December, and keep them until New Year's Day, when the children would get to break and eat them.

One thing that everyone can agrees on is gingerbread houses were popularized by the German fairy tale "Hansel & Gretel." Most of us remember the young pair found a gingerbread house when they were lost in the woods.

Here's the rundown on a few places to either buy or see gingerbread houses in the Las Vegas area:

Apart from Four Seasons, there will be a few gingerbread creations scattered around the Strip. Jean-Phillippe Maury is doing the facade of Bellagio in this format, complete with the hotel's lake and shops. It should be up around Tuesday in the Bellagio Buffet.

At Paris Las Vegas, Pastry Chef Jean-Claude Canestrier will make gingerbread figures out of the traditional French spiced gingerbread known as pain d'epices, for his buffets and in his pastry shop.

At Aladdin, Chef Manfred Schmidhuber is creating gingerbread houses for the hotel's Spice Market Buffet and the front lobby.

But many people like to buy these gingerbread houses. With properly dry storage, they last quite a while and can be used for several years.

One of the best places to buy a gingerbread house is Freed's Bakery, 4780 S. Eastern Ave. This family owned bakery, now in its 44th year, is run by the founder's daughter, Joni Freed.

Gingerbread house production starts around the first week of November and continues until Dec. 20. During that time the bakery will produce between 400 and 500 gingerbread houses, which range in price from $25.95 to much more for special orders.

Walk into the bakery this week and the shelves will be lined with these houses, which are made from a honey molasses dough, royal icing, cookies, gumdrops and jelly beans, according to the whims of the designers.

A small one is around 6 inches wide, 6 inches deep and 8 inches long. Each one is an individual work of art.

Freed says most customers use them as centerpieces. No matter how they are used, the houses are drop-dead cute.

What Pastry Chef Daul and his team do at the Four Seasons, though, is in another league altogether: 25 houses, each with its own theme and design, plus a carousel that acts as the major attraction for the hotel during the holidays.

This masterpiece requires seven chefs and several weeks. In all, Daul says, around 450 man hours are needed in its production.

Daul, a native of Alsace, France, is a seasoned professional at this art. Before he came to the Four Seasons he plied his trade at Disney World in Orlando, Fla., and also in Strasbourg, France, where there is a tradition of building these houses.

Daul says that in Europe, some pastry chefs actually start making the dough in January, because the longer it matures, the better it tastes.

The detail on these little houses is amazing: sugar eaves, windows, boughs and other ornaments, many made by using the art of shaping sugar that the French call pastillage.

There will be a butcher shop, a station complete with cable car, a fire station, an Irish pub, a chapel and a city hall in this year's village, which will be 28 feet long when fully assembled.

Just a few of statistics relevant to the assembly of this village: 350 pounds of sugar, 360 eggs, 4 pounds of ground cinnamon, 180 pounds of honey and 4 pounds of salt, plus 37.5 hours just to engineer the village.

"The detail is what really takes us most of the time," says Daul, as he points to a sugar-and-egg-white porch on the village's pumpkin farm.

What's more, all of the properties are for sale, generally for around $500 each. When the properties are sold, the village will look similar to a real estate office, with little "Sold" signs gracing each property.

This is all for a good cause, of course. The Terry Fox Foundation uses the proceeds from the sale of these houses to fight cancer. The foundation has raised almost 220 million dollars worldwide.

Incidentally, children (and perhaps older beings) nibble on Daul's houses throughout the season, and leave Santa Claus little notes, which Daul himself answers.

So for anyone who wishes to see the village completely intact, stop by early in the holiday season if possible.