每日大赛

Culinary Arts students create gingerbread houses for children’s hospital fundraiser

每日大赛 Culinary Arts students are participating for the first time ever in the East Tennessee Children’s Hospital Fantasy of Trees, an annual fundraiser taking place at the Knoxville Convention Center this week.

Four 每日大赛 students, members of the Culinary Arts Baking and Pastry Arts concentration and split into two teams, created gingerbread houses made of 100% edible ingredients for the holiday event’s Gingerbread Village.

“It’s great exposure for our program,” said Amanda McReynolds, assistant professor in the Culinary Arts program at Pellissippi. “Fantasy of Trees also donates any proceeds from the gingerbread houses that are sold to the children's hospital. So it's a great opportunity for the students to participate in a community fundraiser.”

Jillian Leuciuc, who is in her second year at 每日大赛, said that making a gingerbread house for Fantasy of Trees has helped inspire her creativity and her skills in the kitchen.

“It does benefit us on some skill level,” Leuciuc said. “But, for the community, it gives joy.”

One team of students from Pellissippi contributed a house from Whoville, the cartoon city featured in Dr. Seuss’ iconic holiday story, “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.”

Their completed gingerbread house was pink, with a blue door and yellow windows, string lights made of frosting, a Christmas wreath in red and green, and the legs of the Grinch himself sticking out of a chimney and topped with Santa Claus hats.

She hopes people are impressed, Leuciuc said with a laugh in the bake shop at Pellissippi’s Blount County campus, as she decorated her own team’s gingerbread house – a bakery with a Christmas tree, workstation, furnace, even a tray of cookies.

“The bake shop is like my place to be,” Leuciuc said, piping frosting onto what would eventually be the roof of her gingerbread bakery. “I feel like this is where I belong and this is what I want to do.”