Olympian Cooks Up Culinary Prizewinner

Danny Everett has run away with the first prize again.

The 1988 and 1992 Olympic gold medalist took top honors in the Seoul and Barcelona summer games for the 1,600-meter relay race and the bronze medal in the 400-meter race.

But these days, Everett has hung up his medals and athletic shoes momentarily, exchanging them for a chef’s hat and trays of golden-brown gingerbread.

“I’ve been cooking all of my life,” said the 30-year-old Calabasas resident. “It just seems like such a natural thing to do.”

Everett won first place for a gingerbread house he created as part of an assignment at the Los Angeles Culinary Institute, where he is enrolled. One of 60 entries, Everett’s ornate edifice was designed to look like “a replica of a real house,” he said.

“I used jellybeans that look like rocks for the front of the house and white chocolate instead of white powdered sugar to simulate snow,” he said.

The aspiring chef said he used decorations uncommon to traditional gingerbread houses such as green frosting to simulate ivy crawling up the sides of the soft, edible walls.

“The finely detailed work was very impressive,” said Richard Battista, dean and chef instructor at the institute.

The students’ houses have been placed together to create a “gingerbread house village” that measures approximately 15 feet by 12 feet, said Battista. The display can be seen at the Los Angeles Culinary Classroom restaurant on Ventura Boulevard.

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Everett and second-place winner Valentina Kenney of Pacific Palisades are scheduled to appear on the ABC-TV show “Good Morning America” this morning to demonstrate gingerbread-house making with co-host Joan Lunden.

Though Everett was surprised at winning first place, his family has known about his ability for years.

“When I was in the third and fourth grade, I was in charge of cooking breakfast for the family,” said the former UCLA student, who grew up in South-Central Los Angeles. “They’re all still alive, so I guess I didn’t do a bad job.”