Executive Pastry Chef James Ungrian at Twin River in Lincoln

By JON BAKER

LINCOLN  ---  As the public and community affairs director at Twin River, Kim Ward wanted to do something different, something special, for the casino’s patrons during this holiday season.

“We talked about it a month ago, just before Thanksgiving, and then presented the idea to Jim Ungiran, the head pastry chef here,” Ward said. “We didn’t give him much time, the poor thing, but he’s very, very creative. We knew he could pull this off.”

Ungiran and 30 helpers baked, designed and built such a village, a 12-foot-long replica of an old-fashioned town at wintertime, one that went on display Friday at noon.

The village will be available for public viewing during regular business hours through New Year’s Day. And, yes, families are invited to bring their children, as long as tots have an adult with them.

“This is fabulous,” said Ward, who believes it to be one of the largest in Rhode Island.. “To complete this in such a short amount of time is unbelievable. We have over 15,000 guests in here a day, and so you’d have to think that at least a quarter of them would stop here and see it. There probably will be more on the weekends.

“I saw bits and pieces of it while it was being built,” she added. “You could tell what was happening, just by following the smell down the hallway. It’s just glorious … I know they’ve done this kind of thing before at the Connecticut casinos, and -- obviously -- we wanted to bring it to Rhode Island for all to enjoy.”

The village includes 20 gingerbread houses, churches, businesses and the like; over 300 pine and bare-branch trees, perfectly designed citizens (with their dogs in chase); cobblestone walkways; a stream (edging the town); and even a snow-covered hill with sledders (of course made of white frosting).

Not surprisingly, the latter was eight-year-old Alessia Pesare’s favorite section.

“I like the sledding hill, but it all looks so real,” gushed Pesare, who stood next to her mother, Julie Pesare of Cranston. “I wish I could be like one of those little kids, riding down a hill of frosting.

“I can’t believe they could make something like this,” she added.

When told her mom and friends such as Heidi Craven of Attleboro, Dorothy Mandeville of North Smithfield, Lena Rancourt of Burrillville and Kelly Cidone -- all of whom work at Twin Hearth Buffet -- helped with the assembly, little Alessia flipped.

Ungiran figures he and others spent a whopping 500 man (and woman) hours on construction over the past three weeks.

“I’m pleased with this -- very pleased, but I’m more happy about the fact it’s done,” Ungiran said with a sigh. “I estimated this project at about 200 hours, but I think I put that much time in myself. I averaged about five hours of sleep a night. That means I spent 14-16 hours a day in here.”

A colleague immediately piped up: “More than that!”

All told, according to his estimates, it took 600 pounds of confectionary sugar, 150 pounds of egg whites, 100 pounds of flour, 50 pounds of brown sugar, 40 pounds of margarine, 400 sugar ice cream cones, 60 individually handcrafted animals and people from edible chocolate and fondant and two gallons of molasses.

Ungiran noted that the cobblestone sidewalks and walkways were made of pastillage, the same material in Necco wafers and the previously politcally-correct candy cigarettes (of the 1950s and ‘60s), while fine- and coarse-granulated glaze colored the stream and skating pond. He added that the bare-branch trees were created with modeling chocolate, with the snow on them made with more frosting.

“We want people to look at this village 10 times; I guarantee that if you look at it an 11th, you’ll notice something new, something you didn’t see before,” Ungiran said.

If there’s a downside to it, there will be no public or private munching on the display after the holidays.

“No one would want to eat it,” Ungiran claimed. “So many people have touched the pieces, without gloves. You look at the trees, and they get rock hard. The frosting gets to be like cement, and we’re going to need hammers to break them up.”