901 Now: Pastry chef prepares gingerbread masterpieces for the holidays

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) - The South’s Grand Hotel has spent months preparing gingerbread masterpieces for the holiday, and this year’s theme celebrates the child inside all of us.

For 17 years now, Peabody Hotel Executive Pastry Chef Konrad Spitzbart and his team have been creating showstopping gingerbread displays for the holidays.

“We get a lot of questions throughout the year like about the theme for this year,” Spitzbart said. “We kind of have an idea or we for sure know what we are going to do.”

This year’s theme is Willy Wonka.

“We kind of built like a whole scene of it and put in a Wonka land,” Spitzbart said. “We put the Oompa Loopa and the factory and some of the scenes that are important and that everyone knows.”

It just so happens, this year’s theme coincides with the new Wonka film.

“We didn’t even know there was a movie coming out, until closer to the fall season and then we were like, well that plays out together,” Spitzbart said.

With a bit of Hollywood and holiday magic in this year’s display, the pressure to top it next year has already started.

“We will see what theme comes up next year,” Spitzbart said. “We might do a traditional one next year and then just build a Christmas town or something pops out that we haven’t done yet, and add to it.”

There is still time to see this year’s giant gingerbread display located in the Peabody Grand Lobby.

The display will be up until January 27.

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