On Monday, December 12, students from Westerly High School’s culinary arts program will be competing in a Gingerbread Village Competition and Reception at Watch Hill’s Ocean House. After returning from Thanksgiving break, the culinary students were given the theme “Winter Wonderland” by the chefs from The Ocean House. For about two weeks they have been hard at work designing and creating their own wonderlands in self selected teams. The teams work together to design creations that evoke that magical winter feeling. What was most impressive to us was watching the students navigate their way through problems that were arising as gingerbread houses were being assembled. Two of the Ocean House chefs were on site today to work with the students and give them some advice on their creations.
Westerly Food had the opportunity to speak with some of the students from last year’s winning team about their future plans.
Senior Kasey Williams has recently been accepted into the Culinary Institute of America. She works at Vesta Bakery here in Westerly and was on last year’s first place team. Her work was meticulous and she was very encouraging of her teammate’s suggestions.
Senior Zachary Zarkowski will be attending Johnson and Wales in the fall. He is working with two of last year’s first place teammates on a gorgeous winter wonderland which has clearly been very well thought out. I was very impressed with his attention to detail and careful placement of each sugared pearl he was adding to the windows.
Senior Riley Brennan was also part of last year’s first place team. Here, she is looking on as Williams puts faces on the snow people. In class she was busy making fondant presents to put under one of the Rice Krispie trees in the magical light blue and white wonderland. They looked cute enough to open!
The Gingerbread Village Competition and Reception is free to the public but you do need to register. You can do so here or by going to the Events page at The Ocean House web site.
