January 5, 2006
Chef whips up president’s house
It’s all there, even down to the details — the red brick and white trim, the evergreen trees, even the classic portico. UW pastry chef Diane Hall-Harris created a replica of the UW President’s residence — almost entirely of gingerbread.
Hall-Harris, a longtime baker and pastry chef for the Housing and Food Services Department, said getting those details right was the biggest challenge of the project, and required some up-front research.
“I actually went to the residence and took pictures, and from that made the design,” Hall-Harris said. “I made the template out of cardboard before making the actual structure.”
Some experimentation was needed to find the right color combination for the brick areas on the house, Hall-Harris said, but she finally found an appropriate color recipe. “I wanted to make the dough look as much like the rosy-colored brick the residence is made of. I used red food color, molasses and cocoa to deepen it.” She baked small sample pieces until she got the shade she wanted.
The base of the house, she said, is about 2 feet by 2 feet, and it stands a little over one foot tall. And though gingerbread houses are sometimes made to be edible (such as in official competitions, Hall-Harris said), this one won’t end up as anyone’s dessert. “I knew this one was not going to be eaten, so I used a few things that were not strictly food items, for structural support.
Hall-Harris was quick to thank Jean-Michel Boulot, executive chef for housing and food services, and Eric Lenard, chef and manager of the 1101 Café, where Hall-Harris works, for letting her take time to do the project right. “They were incredibly supportive,” she said.
“I started out my career as a pastry chef in a hotel,” Hall-Harris said, “and I really enjoy detail work. This was a really challenging thing to do.”
The gingerbread house was on display in the president’s office in Gerberding Hall for some time, but has now been moved to the residence itself.
The proof that Hall-Harris doggedly worked to get the details right is evident on the porch of the gingerbread house, where President Emmert’s two dogs sit, made of marzipan, ready to greet miniature visitors. Mattie is a black lab and Huckleberry is a yellow lab — and both are depicted wearing cozy Santa hats.
