White House Gingerbread Food Garden – Yes, Mrs. Obama’s

Photo by Luxist. The marzipan Kitchen Garden is complete with veggies that were actually grown during the late summer/Fall season, with eggplant, radishes, carrots, cabbages, peas, cauliflower–and tiny handwritten signs that have the names of the vegetables on them. See larger image here.

Marzipan Kitchen Garden vegetables

By Eddie Gehman Kohan
Obama Foodorama
Dec 2, 2009

White House Executive Pastry Chef Bill Yosses has been as busy as an elf in Santa’s workshop–for months. In addition to a loaded schedule that includes making the thousands of sweets for all the White House holiday events (17 parties, 11 Open Houses)–and for private Obama family consumption–Yosses has also had a whole architecture project going on for the past six weeks, during the creation of the annual White House Gingerbread House, a holiday tradition that in the past was brought to stunning heights of creativity by former White House Executive Pastry Chef Roland Mesnier, the only chef to last for 26 years in the Executive Mansion.

Yosses’s latest version, debuted today at First Lady Michelle Obama’s Holiday Decorations Preview, can hold its own with past holiday gingerbread extravaganzas. And it was a big team effort, according to Yosses, something of a pet project for White House staff.

“We had everyone working on this,” Yosses noted at the press preview. “Electricians, plumbers, carpenters, lots of staff.”

Photo by Luxist. Yosses shows off his Gingerbread House. See larger image here.

And, according to Yosses, Malia and Sasha Obama also came in to check on holiday house progress, and loved what they saw. The incredibly detailed, 390-lb white-chocolate covered gingerbread house (250 pounds of chocolate and 140 of gingerbread), at 56 X 29 inches, is based on White House architect James Hoban’s original design, but cheats a little: Windows are missing from the South Portico, so it doesn’t have the dramatic “bow” effect of the real South Portico, and the doors at the base of the Portico are straight on top, rather than arched. The balconies for both levels are not true to scale, either; these are where the President speaks during big events on the south Lawn. That’s quibbling–the house is a masterpiece. Mrs. Obama referred to Yosses as “brilliant” in her holiday remarks.

See the complete article here.

See a video of the gingerbread house described by the chef here.