Village takes the cake

Jeff Benson

Perhaps it’s the airport, golf course, deluxe hotel, cliffside homes

and stretch of sandy beach, but this year’s miniature Gingerbread

Village Wonderland at the Four Seasons Hotel at Fashion Island looks

less like the traditional snowy scene and more like the surrounding

commercial terrain.

That was exactly the plan, as Four Seasons Executive Chef Michel

Pieton and a staff of six other pastry chefs designed the delectable

village with features similar to those found around Newport Beach.

“Last year, we brought in the beach theme and a few figures,” Chef

Todd Meyer said. “This year, we’ve added some surfers, the cliff and

the beach bungalow. We even made a mural on the side of one of the

beach houses, like you see on some of the ones in Newport Beach.”

The village is almost entirely edible -- 95 pounds of gingerbread,

50 pounds of chocolate and 5,000 pieces of candy -- and will be on

display in the hotel’s lobby through New Year’s Day.

Pieton’s team spent 2,000 hours -- and a year of planning -- on

the seventh annual gingerbread village in order to raise money for

the Marine Corps Toys for Tots campaign.

“You’ve got to be a big kid at heart to do this, and luckily I

haven’t grown up yet,” Meyer said. “A lot of it is because I want to

make it as realistic as possible, but it’s for a good cause. We do it

for the kids, and it’s worth every minute.”

Hotel guests and business sponsors have the opportunity to add

their own names -- or company names -- to all 34 of the village

buildings. Donations from $100 to $10,000 will be used to provide

toys for underprivileged children in and around Orange County,

spokeswoman Sunny Kang said.

Last year’s exhibit raised $55,000 in sponsorships, Kang said, and

she anticipates the hotel will make a similar donation this year.

Corporations have already pledged $42,000 by naming buildings, she

said, and there are still a handful of vacancies. Other landmarks

also remain unnamed, including a theater, a log cabin, a millhouse,

the “Pacific Ocean” and a giant snowman that serves as the village

centerpiece.

The hotel is also collecting stuffed bears to donate to Toys for

Tots. Children can drop them off anytime before Christmas at a giant

sleigh in the hotel lobby and will be rewarded with hot cocoa and

pastries, Kang said.

The chefs met with several engineers in August to design the

village, then baked, iced and decorated it, Kang said. Some of the

chefs worked on the village for more than 50 hours per week, but

Pieton felt that the hardest part is yet to come. They still have to

defend the village from giant snowmen and, worst of all, hungry

hands.

“There’s always somebody trying to take a piece of it,” Pieton

said.

* JEFF BENSON covers education and may be reached at (714)

966-4617 or by e-mail at jeff.benson@latimes.com.