'Close to 4,000 pounds of icing' - Gingerbread village maker unveils latest creation in NYC

Record ID: 1699847

  • Title: 'Close to 4,000 pounds of icing' - Gingerbread village maker unveils latest creation in NYC
  • Date: 29th November 2022
  • Summary: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (NOVEMBER 29, 2022) (REUTERS) SIGN IN FRONT OF GINGERBREAD DISPLAY READING (English): “CONSTRUCTION IN PROGRESS” LOVITCH POURING CANDY ONTO DISPLAY TABLE GINGERBREAD HOUSE (LEFT) / BOX OF CANDY SPILLING ONTO DISPLAY TABLE (RIGHT) SIDE OF GINGERBREAD HOUSE / STREET OUTSIDE EXHIBIT (SOUNDBITE) (English) GINGERBREAD LANE CREATOR AND ARTIS
  • Embargoed: 13th December 2022 20:34
  • Keywords: Christmas Gingerbread Village Guinness Book exhibit holiday world record
  • Location: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES
  • City: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES
  • Country: US
  • Topics: Arts/Culture/Entertainment,North America
  • Reuters ID: LVA003285628112022RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text:For Gingerbread Lane artist and creator Jon Lovitch, gingerbread is a way of life.
    His gingerbread village display - consisting of about 700 houses, 4,000 pounds of candy, just short of 1,000 pounds of gingerbread and about 6,000 egg whites - recently opened at Essex Market on Manhattan’s Lowest East Side.
    “So what's behind me - or by definition, I'm standing in the middle of - is the largest gingerbread village in the world. We have multiple Guinness World Records. This year is not exactly big enough to compete for the Guinness World Record for the number of houses, but it is big enough to compete for the Guinness World Record for square footage,” Lovitch said when Reuters spoke with him on Tuesday (November 29).
    The Essex Market Gingerbread Lane display is just under 500 feet - about 30 square feet over the current World Record, according to Lovitch.
    The Missouri-native got his start in the gingerbread business in Kansas City almost 29 years ago.
    Ten years ago, he began exhibiting in New York City.
    This year, he has three displays – here at Essex Market, in Salt Lake City, Utah, and in Kansas City, Missouri.
    “Every year the houses return. So, it's the Santa's sleigh repair or the sled factory or the deck the halls shop or whatever,” he said. ”They all come back from one year to the next, but they all change. The design is different, the candy is different, the little figurines that sit on them…”
    The executive chef-turned-artist works from home.
    He does all his baking in his kitchen in Queens, New York.
    And not just ahead of the holidays; creating hundreds of gingerbread houses is a year-long process.
    Lovitch says he’ll start preparing for next year about five days before Christmas.
    He acknowledged that it’s a lot of work – but it’s labor that brings him joy.
    “Gingerbread Lane has a real nice escapist quality. You can come here and look at this, and for that brief moment you're going to forget about your mortgage or Covid or politics or Aaron Judge or whatever is driving you crazy,” he said. “people that come times, look at it five, ten, 15, 20 minutes, and they really enjoy it. It's a great feeling for me to know that I'm responsible for creating that feeling of happiness.”
    The Essex Market Gingerbread Lane exhibit runs through January 16.
    On that day, visitors are welcome to line up to take home a gingerbread house for free.
    (Production: Andrew Hofstetter, Christine Kiernan)
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