Nicholas Lodge facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Nicholas Lodge
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Nicholas Lodge holding an arrangement of gum paste flowers that he created.
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| Born | 12 June 1962 Essex, England
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| Died | 9 August 2022 |
| Education | National Bakery School |
| Occupation | Pastry chef, cake artist, instructor, author, business owner |
Chef Nicholas Lodge (born 12 June 1962) was a famous pastry chef, cake artist, and teacher. He was also an author and owned a business. He was known for making amazing, realistic flowers out of gum paste, which is a type of edible sugar dough.
Nicholas Lodge co-owned the International Sugar Art Collection in Atlanta. This place was a gallery and a school. There, people could learn all about cake decorating and sugar art. He also taught at the French Pastry School in Chicago. You might have seen him as a judge on the TV show Food Network Challenge. He also judged the Omni Grove Park Inn National Gingerbread House Competition every year. Nicholas Lodge passed away on August 9, 2022.
Contents
Early Life and First Cakes
Nicholas Lodge was born in Essex, England. He started decorating cakes when he was only ten years old. His first cake was for his parents' wedding anniversary.
Around the same time, he was recovering from a tonsillectomy (a surgery to remove tonsils). His grandmother gave him a book about cake decorating from Australia. Using this book, he made his very first sugar flowers. They were white carnations.
Learning to Be a Chef
When Nicholas was 11, he went to Moulsham High School in Chelmsford. At that time, schools often separated boys and girls for certain classes. Boys usually learned woodworking or engineering. Girls took home economics, which included cooking.
Nicholas knew he wanted to be a chef. This was an unusual career choice for a boy in England back then. He asked if he could take home economics. The headteacher wasn't sure, but his parents supported him. They insisted he be allowed to join the class.
At 16, Nicholas enrolled in the National Bakery School in London. He went to class from Monday to Thursday. On Fridays and Saturdays, he worked at a bakery. On Saturday afternoons, he worked at a flower shop. He would often take flowers apart carefully. He made detailed notes and templates. This helped him figure out how to perfectly recreate flowers using gum paste. When he graduated, he was named the Most Outstanding Cake Decorating Student.
Amazing Career in England
After finishing bakery school, Nicholas Lodge became the main wedding cake designer at Woodnutts. This was one of England's best sugar art schools. While there, he made cakes for famous places like Harrods, the Savoy, and The Ritz.
Next, Lodge taught at Mary Ford's Cake Artistry Centre. During this time, the royal family asked him to make a cake. It was for the Queen Mother's 80th birthday.
Royal Wedding Cakes
Nicholas Lodge was chosen by the royal family to create one of the official wedding cakes. This was for the wedding of Lady Diana Spencer and Prince Charles. The cake was huge! It stood nine feet tall and weighed over 300 pounds.
Three years later, the royal family hired him again. This time, he made a christening cake for Prince Harry. This cake had beautiful details. It featured swans, water lilies, and a tiny baby wrapped in royal clothes.
Books and Giving Back
In 1985, Nicholas Lodge was asked to write his first book. He wrote more books after that. He also made teaching videos and traveled the world to teach. After his fourth book came out, he gave a generous gift to his old school, Moulsham High School. He donated about $30,000, along with books and equipment for the home economics department.
Moving to the United States
In the 1980s, Nicholas Lodge visited the United States. He was there to show his skills at a big event called the International Cake Exploration Societé (ICES) convention. At that time, most American cakes had thick buttercream icing. Many students in his classes had never seen the techniques he used. He decorated cakes with royal icing and rolled fondant.
Nicholas felt that the cake decorating world in England was very crowded. So, he decided to move to the United States to teach. He taught a two-week class in Atlanta, Georgia. He liked the city so much that he decided to make it his new home. That two-week class turned into a three-year teaching job!
International Sugar Art Collection
In 1992, Nicholas Lodge and his business partner, Scott Ewing, opened their own school. It was also a retail gallery called the International Sugar Art Collection (ISAC). It was located in Norcross, Georgia. There is also a sister school in Tokyo, Japan, which opened in 1995.
Lodge taught classes at ISAC and all over the United States. He also taught in many other countries. He was so busy teaching that in 1993, he couldn't accept an invitation from the Clinton White House. They had offered him a special one-year fellowship.
In 2001, Nicholas Lodge was honored by being added to the ICES Hall of Fame. He was the youngest person ever to receive this award. Since 2003, the annual Epcot International Food and Wine Festival at Walt Disney World Resort has invited him. He was a special guest pastry chef there. This led to him teaching classes just for the pastry chefs at Walt Disney World Resort.
TV Judge and Head Judge
In 2005, the Food Network asked Nicholas Lodge to be a judge. He judged two seasons of Food Network Challenge. At the same time, he was offered another judging job. This was for the National Gingerbread House Competition at the Omni Grove Park Inn. He later became the head judge for this competition.
From 2009 to 2014, Lodge was a spokesperson for Albert Uster Imports (AUI). He traveled around the U.S. for AUI. He showed how to use their rolled fondant and other products. He also demonstrated different techniques for wedding cake designs. In 2015, Nicholas became a brand ambassador for Renshaw, another company that makes rolled fondant and gum paste.
Lodge also taught at other famous schools. These included Le Cordon Bleu, Johnson & Wales, and the Art Institute of Atlanta. He taught the gum paste part of a program at the French Pastry School. In 2010, he joined their teaching team. He became a chef instructor for their 16-week L'Art du Gateau program. This program is for people who want to work in cake decorating and sugar artistry. For many years, Lodge was a judge and teacher at the World Pastry Forum. In 2013, he also became a regular judge and demonstrator at Pastry Live Atlanta.
Awards and Honors
Nicholas Lodge received many awards for his amazing work:
- 2001 – He was put into the International Cake Exploration Societé Hall of Fame. He was the youngest person ever to get this honor.
- 2003 – He received the Distinguished Visiting Author Award from Johnson & Wales.
- 2009 – He won The Sweet Life Award: Hall of Fame. This was given at the National Capital Area Cake Show.
- 2010 – Dessert Professional magazine named him a Top Ten Pastry Chef and a Top Ten Cake Artist. He was the first person ever to receive both honors in the same year.
