An Edible Urban Winter Wonderland

To find this miracle of modern gingerbread architecture, Corey Kilgannon ventures to the New York Hall of Science in Queens, where he finds Jon Lovitch's Guinness-recognized creation: a gingerbread village made up of 164 structures. "All of the pieces — from the brownstones, to the two-foot-high nutcrackers made of many layers of royal icing — were made by Mr. Lovitch, usually late at night after returning from work as the executive sous chef at the New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge."

"It will be disassembled after the holiday season, and Mr. Lovitch will give pieces away to visitors," notes Kilgannon. "The village, which includes an ice rink, a firehouse and the 'Cinnamon and Nutmeg' railroad station, is next to learning kiosks devoted to molecular chemistry."

“Hey, baking is Chemistry 101,” Mr. Lovitch said. “You have to mix your egg whites and sugar and cream of tartar. If you can’t understand that, you don’t have icing.”