The (Oven) Mitts are Off!

"Gingerbread NYC" returns for its second year

Friday, December 1, 2023 by John Kuehn

What already feels like a long-standing winter holiday tradition is surprisingly only in its second year. Gingerbread NYC: The Great Borough Bake-Off is back for the 2023 holiday season with gingerbread creations inspired by the theme “Iconic New York.”  

When I was asked to reflect and write a small blog post about my experience in the inaugural year of Gingerbread NYC, it was a personal story about change, taking a chance, and doing something different. It was about learning something new with no preconceived idea of how exactly it was supposed to be. And in this case, it was about being at the beginning of a new tradition at the Museum of the City of New York.  The Museum’s mission is to celebrate the stories of New Yorkers from all five boroughs, and no New York story would be complete without its accounting of struggle, courage, and change.  

My story is quite simple, but revolutionary for me personally. I’m an architect with 25 years of experience and worked on NYC building projects for most of those years. While I’m not originally from New York City, I grew up in fascination and awe of its unique standing in our country—and the world—and from a young age plotting a way to live and work there.  The city is home to some of the greatest architectural marvels this country has to offer and it remains a vital and relevant hotbed of talent that continues to evolve.  The rate of change this city sees, as evident in new urban, civil planning, and architectural projects, is not only proof of this relevance but also evidence of how important change actually is. 

With this energy for change (which I feel only this city can foster) I too decided to make a shift.  Architecture and design are in my veins, but I decided it was time to do something completely new.  I’ve always been a hobby baker, and drawn to the cultural exploration that food traditions demonstrate. Not dissimilar from architecture, food is the quickest way I can plug in and understand people and their culture.  With that, I decided to leave the practice of architecture and pursue a life in the food world! I began a blog and some social media channels, all to fill my days with exploring, researching, and baking various recipes.   

Shameless plug – check me out here: 
www.thenewbakecity.com
@NewBakeCity  

As I develop my body of work, I hope to move into something more permanent— be it pastry cheffing, food styling, food writing, or some blend of it all.  Needless to say, I metaphorically jumped off the deep end into something I knew little about but had lots of passion for.  My goal was to treat every new opportunity that may come my way as just that – something new to try, at least once.

Quite literally as I was making this shift, a new opportunity came across my inbox…. “A call to bakers… the first annual Gingerbread NYC: Five Borough Bake-Off."  With not a single bit of ginger-structure baking experience, I decided to enter. How hard could it be? I love gingerbread, and I was already envisioning the grand cityscapes that I would make out of this material. I was psyched! This would be like an architectural school project, consisting of simple chipboard models that I used to make all the time as a student.  With excitement and ambition purely in the driver's seat, I submitted my design—a grand sketch of Madison Park, complete with the historic and modern skyscrapers on its perimeter.  At this point, I hadn’t figured out how I would make this, but I was pretty confident they wouldn’t select me as someone with NO prior experience. 

Design sketch showing the scale blueprints for a gingerbread display of Madison Square Park.

Long story short…. they selected me! I was in shock, and now I had to figure out how to make good on the sketch I promised the Museum. My work was cut out for me. I had promised gingerbread skyscrapers that would be upwards of 30” tall, basically maxing out on the overall height limit, and I was now seriously questioning (cursing, really) my naive ambition. 

First, I began recipe testing. I had to find the RIGHT type of ginger dough that wouldn’t bend, would stand straight, and hold its shape. Then I needed to accurately scale, draw, and make all the cookie cutout template pieces that made up my scene (approximately 125 individual pieces). If anything, I wanted the scale of the buildings to look accurate, since my actual craft and decoration skills may be a bit less “honed” as a first-time gingerbread maker.  Next, I needed to figure out the correct recipe for gingerbread adhesion—be it royal icing, melted sugar, or this fantastic thing I discovered in my research—Isomalt.  I felt like a real scientist-baker now! (Little did I know that you needed to melt it to lava-like temperatures in order to work with it —fun fingertip burns ensued.) 

Last but not least came the detailed decorating and the careful assembly of various building blocks. The final push was the most anxious of all. With the help of two others, I had to drive all component pieces up to the Museum—from 24th to 104th Street—without destroying it all. Moving very slowly up Third Avenue for four miles not only takes a long time, but you feel EVERY pothole and bump along the way.  While we made it to the Museum with (unbelievably) no breakage, now it was time to assemble—hours of work to stack pieces to create the towers of Madison Park and decorate the park itself. One thing I've learned about gingerbread structures, you can never take for granted or control the weather and humidity.  The weekend of my assembly, in late October - was in the 70s and humid. With humid air, you quickly realize your gingerbread’s limits.  Almost immediately, roofs were sagging, towers were leaning, seams were coming apart, and I was panicking!  

I left that evening with a cautious sense of completion. 

The next day I got a nervous phone call from the Museum…”Hi John? It's Jerry, can you come to the Museum immediately? We have an issue!….” My heart sank.  Were my worst fears coming true? Had all my buildings just fallen over?! The installation was about to go live the next day! Thankfully, the reality was not as bad as my imagination, though I had to conduct a few emergency maneuvers. I remade roofs, added more internal supports, and even had to remove one tower and completely re-attach it with a new level base.  I had to reassess all the structures to ensure they would last the whole duration of the show (the best I knew how anyway). Whatever I did, add enough royal icing, Isomalt, or prayer, the ginger buildings stayed standing through January.  I had somehow managed to do this thing that I had no idea how to do! 

I’m happy to lend my story to celebrate this joyous occasion. While I was lucky enough to put my burgeoning gingerbread skills to work as one of seven entrants of the inaugural year, this time around, you’ll find over three times the number of stories on display—23 to be exact. My contributions to this project have grown as well. I was asked to take a larger role in the installation, something more than submitting another gingerbread entry. With my past experience as a gingerbread baker and architect, I was able to support the Museum as an advisor for this year’s contest.  

This year’s displays represent some important edifice, milestone, or historic event that helped shape the lives of the bakers whose creations came to life in this iteration of Gingerbread NYC.  After meeting and talking with most of them during their installation—they all certainly had their challenges and anxieties, not to mention (a constant curse perhaps?) The temperature was in the 80s and humid! I knew the stress they were all under. It was all I could do to try to calm their nerves, to remind them of the bigger picture and what they had already achieved by being in the Museum.  That said, the commitment level of these bakers, their attention to detail, and the thoughtfulness of each display are truly amazing. This year, another set of happy New York City stories has come to life. 

The Museum has just scratched the surface with Gingerbread NYC: The Great Borough Bake-Off. I'm excited to see it grow each year and take its place as one of the great events to visit each holiday season in the city. As long as there are passionate bakers and non-bakers, ready to bake their story to life - the show will keep getting bigger and better every year.   

View of select displays for the installation "Gingerbread NYC: Great Borough Bake-Off, 2023.

Gingerbread NYC: the Great Borough Bake-Off is on view for a limited time. See it before January 15th, 2024! 
Happy Holidays—and see you there! 

John Kuehn 
2023 Gingerbread Advisor 

By John Kuehn, Gingerbread NYC Advisor, 2023

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