Christmas is around the corner and capturing the feel of the festival is Vivanta by Taj, MG Road, which has set up an 18 feet by 12 feet gingerbread house. The display will be on at the entrance of the hotel until December 25. And one cannot miss the Christmas delicacies available inside the gingerbread house. Right from plum pudding, plum cake, mince fruit pie, chocolates, marzipans and a range of breads, which include stolen bread, corn bread, thyme roll among others, there is a variety to choose from. A mini gingerbread house is also available.
A team of 32 chefs has worked on the house. Chef Ramasamy Selvaraju, the executive chef of the hotel, said, “We have worked on putting this together over the last ten days. In the previous years, we had built a much smaller model but this year, we felt the need to do something different. In fact, we took this one as a challenge. Now, we are all proud of the outcome.”
The last two days for the team of chefs were particularly challenging as they had to work for 48 hours continuously. “The group was divided into subgroups to ensure that the work went on smoothly. The final stage was critical as we had to see that the icing was even,” added the chef. Over 125 kg of icing sugar, 200 kg of flour and corn flour, 15 litres of honey and three kg of ginger powder were used to make the gingerbread house. “The process is quite simple but the quantity makes it difficult for it to be rolled out,” said Selvaraju. The team has also dished out some secret recipes for Christmas.
Heather Ramaswamy, who was present at the venue along with family, said, “I tasted the mince fruit pie and it was delicious. I will be coming back here to pick up some more goodies. I will also be back for the Christmas brunch. The whole set-up is so Christmassy.” Leela Sreenivas, another visitor who had come to see the display, said, “My children really had a good time tasting a bit of sweet and spice. They were like kids in a candy store.” Her son Anand said, “Someone, who had visited the place, mentioned it to us. And we thought it was a good idea to have a look at the gingerbread house as well as have a snack. We had the Mississipi mud pie and chocolate truffle.”
He added, “We also picked up a plum cake to enjoy the festive season.”
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