These epic SF holiday sugar castles take 300 hours to create, use 1,000 pounds of baking materials

When July rolls around every year, Chef Jean Francois Houdre isn't thinking about Independence Day or summer barbecues in San Francisco. For him, July signals the start of the holiday season for the Westin St. Francis chef; it's when it's time to begin devoting a little time each day on the storied hotel's famed sugar castles.

Houdre's team then spends the next several months creating, replacing, or repairing thousands of confectionary figurines, sugar-ribboned gift boxes, and pastillage details that embellish the towering structures.

The castles finally appear in the lobby of the Union Square hotel the day before Thanksgiving, after about 300 hours of difficult labor and meticulous sugar work.

This holiday season marks the 13th time Houdre and his team will unveil their handiwork in the lobby of the hotel. But it will be just the second time that they'll be premiering not one, but two creations: one 12-feet-tall Medieval castle, and another, more modern-looking structure. That's a long way from their first unveiling of a small castle that stood in the corner of the lobby in 2005.

The sugar castles at the Westin St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco's Union Square have grown significantly more intricate through the years. Click through to see how they've evolved. The sugar castles at the Westin St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco's Union Square have grown significantly more intricate through the years. Click through to see how they've evolved. Image 1 of / 22 Caption Close These epic SF holiday sugar castles take 300 hours to create, use 1,000 pounds of baking materials 1 / 22 Back to Gallery

"It was very small — my size," laughs Houdre, recalling the first sugar castle. "Then every year we tried to make it more detail-oriented and more interesting. More intriguing."

Every year, the castle got bigger and more intricate, and last year, the team one-upped itself by adding a second castle. It's an impressive feat, but one they're able to accomplish by reusing pieces — as much as 75 percent, particularly in the castle bases — from earlier years.

"It's labor-intensive; that's why we can't start from scratch every year," Houdre explains. "We do a lot of repairs. We have a lot of damage. We bring it to the lobby in many pieces, we set it all up and when we take it apart we have a lot of breakage."

The castles are made from several different confectionary substances, including pulled and blown sugar, rolled fondant, white icing and pastillage, a plaster-like mix of powdered sugar, water, gelatin, and vinegar. Those materials are used to make everything, from the walls of the castle to the flocked trees to the townspeople.

"We try to make them a little bit funny," Houdre says of the people within the display. "They don't have any hair, just like me. It's time-consuming but that's what makes it so special. When you see the kids and families who come and see it you can see they appreciate that so you want to make sure you do a very nice display, especially because we're on Union Square. You've seen the size of the lobby — it has to be impressive."

Among the sugary villagers, there's even Pierre, a little figurine of a man, who the hotel staff regard as the "mascot" of the medieval castle. Every year, Houdre hides Pierre in a new location, to the amusement of hotel employees and in-the-know guests.

Finding Pierre has become something of a feat, considering how large and involved the medieval French chateau-style castle and its surrounding village has become. By the Westin St. Francis' estimates, this year the project will include 120 pounds of gingerbread, 180 pounds of pastillage, 90 pounds of pulled and bubble sugar, 90 pounds of molasses, 110 pounds of flour, 150 pounds of various Christmas candy treats, and a whole lot of royal icing — which serves as the glue — made from 350 pounds of sugar and egg whites.

Because of the sheer weight of the final castle, Houdre's team of up to 10 people at a time move the medieval castle in sections to the lobby from the basement-level kitchen. Because the Westin was built in the early 1900s, the team must be sure that every piece will fit through the narrow doorways. As the chef says, "It's a little stressful."

The castle has been dropped before, but it's not something that Houdre wants to even think about, saying that in the event it does happen again, "You don't want to be around."

Once all the pieces arrive at the lobby, the staff puts up a large curtain so that Houdre's team can assemble the castle in the days leading up to its debut.

To answer the question on every young spectator's mind, the castle is technically edible, but as the chef says, it's almost certainly not very tasty.

"You could (eat it), but I don't know why you'd want to," Houdre says, referring to the vinegar and less-than-sweet ingredients in the castle's building materials. "Why would you want to eat that?"

Alyssa Pereira is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at apereira@sfchronicle.com or find her on Twitter at @alyspereira.

