Sweet deal on the Plaza

Imagine being a 6-year-old living in a room on the top floor of the landmark Plaza Hotel in New York City. Such was the case for Eloise, a fictional character fabled to have lived there in the 1950s with her dog Weenie and her turtle Skipperdee.

Fifty years later, thanks to students of Orange Coast College’s Culinary Arts Program, Eloise’s existence has become that much sweeter — her home and the surrounding area is made entirely of candy.

Voting ended Tuesday for the “Fairmont Around the World” gingerbread display sponsored by the Fairmont Newport Beach hotel, to which nine OCC culinary students submitted a gingerbread representation of the Plaza Hotel as it looked circa 1955, complete with Eloise walking her pets and skating on the frozen lake in Central Park. Fairmont will operate the Plaza Hotel when it reopens later this year.

“Not only does this competition improve our own culinary team and the guest experience, it brings us closer to the culinary schools, which are our future,” Thom Killingsworth, the hotel’s director of operations, said.

Under the direction of Melissa Simpson, OCC’s assistant professor of culinary arts, students of the Pastry Arts Program used several slabs of gingerbread, an endless supply of royal icing — a blend of powdered sugar, egg whites and lemon juice — and numerous Red Hots, gum drops and Necco Wafers to build the whimsical version of the hotel, standing more than 2 feet tall and weighing about 75 pounds.

“We felt that Eloise’s story offered us the opportunity to display different mediums,” Simpson said. “It really showcases our sugar skills and the hotel.”

Competing against the Professional Culinary Institute in San Jose and the Le Cordon Bleu California School of Culinary Arts in Pasadena, the OCC team put more than 400 hours into the project, which took about a month to complete. The entries were displayed in the hotel’s Bamboo Lounge for more than a month for guests to admire and vote for their favorite.

“I was really excited to see they had caliber that could rival some of the best culinary schools in the state,” said the Fairmont Newport Beach’s Executive Sous Chef Donald Lockhart, who graduated from the OCC culinary program in 1994. “They did a great job. It’s festive, fun and imaginative.”

Except for the first-place finish by one of the two Le Cordon Bleu teams, final results of the voting were not available late Tuesday. But though OCC’s entry did not win the first-place, four-night vacation package at the Fairmont’s Scottsdale Princess resort, the team was looking more for a rewarding experience than a lavish prize.

“Getting together was a good experience for all of us,” said Christy Platt, the first-year culinary student responsible for the gum-paste models of Eloise that adorn the hotel’s periphery. “It was challenging because every element was new.”

Kurt McGill, a graduate of the OCC Culinary Arts Program, returned for Simpson’s new advanced pastry course and was eager to bring his sugar skills to the gingerbread competition. Although he has a full-time job and runs his own catering service, McGill gave numerous hours to the project because of his love of cooking and the pleasant company of his dedicated partners.

“When you deal with razor sharp knives and scalding hot liquids, you get really close,” he said. “We were constantly making and remaking, but I loved it.”

Looking to further develop his cooking skills, 68-year-old Charlie Turner signed up for the culinary program and was responsible for lining up and affixing more than 1,300 doors and windows made of gum paste to the gingerbread building’s exterior and fashioning its wafer-shingled roof.

Returning student Robert Kirkpatrick said the project would have been impossible without Simpson’s guidance. Not only did she provide the training necessary to complete the model, she also developed the architectural rendering the team used to construct it.

“Our instructor was the glue that held us together,” the 64-year-old retiree said. “This was absolutely one of the most delightful educational experiences I’ve ever had.”

For the moment, Simpson and her culinary team have no specific plans for further gastronomic competitions, though they plan to maintain team camaraderie.

“You can’t imagine how much time it takes to do something like this,” Simpson said. “It always take five times longer than you expect.”