Recently, the Lindale Rotary Club hosted a Christmas parade in downtown Lindale. Chef Summer French’s high school culinary arts classes also participated in the holiday festivities by creating gingerbread confections for an in-school competition.

“The Lindale Rotary Club has hosted the Christmas parade for decades,” Lindale Rotary President Holly Rand said. “Four years ago, we changed from a day parade to a night parade in order to allow the Christmas lights and decor to really stand out. The Christmas parade is a time honored tradition for Rotarians to host, and it is an honor to bring Christmas to Lindale year after year.”

Dubbed “Gingerbread-scapes” by the culinary department, French’s classes constructed different kinds of gingerbread-based creations. The amateur chefs were tasked with creating holiday-themed desserts in school and at home.

“The influence for the houses comes from the nature of the class and the tradition of making a gingerbread house for the holidays,” French said. “It is a great way to test preparation skills and time management. The houses look really easy to build, until you’ve built one. Building one from scratch is even harder and more complicated because every piece has to match perfectly, which rarely happens.”

Participation in the parade was free. Rand attributed the success of the parade year after year to support from the city and police department.

“The city of Lindale does incur expenses of security, traffic detours, and crowd management difficulties,” Rand said. “Without the city of Lindale and police department support, the parade would not be possible.”

French’s first and second-year culinary classes worked on their holiday treats for competition.

“I have one group making a submarine, another is making a bakery, others are making churches and the rest fall into the more traditional category,” French said. “When the competition is done, Culinary I will have spent 11.5 in-class hours and Culinary II will have spent 27 in-class hours. This doesn’t count the time that they have spent after school and at home.”