Jury of the year

Get to know this year’s jury!

The jury for this year’s Gingerbread House exhibition faces the challenging task of selecting the 2024 winners. During an intense day in December, they will carefully review all submitted and displayed gingerbread houses and collaboratively decide on the winners in each category. The jury brings together a broad expertise in baking, design, and architecture, and this year’s members are as follows.

The jury:

Tea Malmegård – Chef, Restaurateur, and TV host
Ulrika Karlsson – Architect at Brrum and Professor at KTH
Johan Ridderstråle – Interior architect and Furniture designer at Broberg & Ridderstråle

The jury selects a winner in each category. There is also a prize for the audience’s favorite, where the public can vote either on-site at Skeppsholmen or online.

We asked this year’s jury two quick questions!

Tea Malmegård

Chef and Restaurateur

How do you make perfectly fluffy royal icing?

45g egg whites
300-350g powdered sugar

Whisk the egg whites and powdered sugar into a stiff meringue using an electric mixer. Ready to use!

What’s your best gingerbread memory?

One year, I made a bunch of houses for various Christmas campaigns at home. When the kids came home from preschool, we pretended to be boxers and knocked all the houses down. Gingerbread and candy flew everywhere, and it’s one of my craziest memories.

Tea Malmegård

Ulrika Karlsson

Architect and Professor

Which house would you most like to eat?

A house as delicate as a funnel cake, with a thin layer of sugar instead of snow.

What’s your best gingerbread memory?

When the house we built finally stayed together.

Photo: Ulrika Karlsson. Ulrika Karlsson

Johan Ridderstråle

Interior Architect and Furniture Designer

Building with gingerbread dough is tricky. What’s the most challenging material you’ve worked with?

We once designed an exhibition based on enormous sheets of foam, a bit like full-scale gingerbread houses. The glue meant to hold the sheets together didn’t work, so we had to improvise by “pinning” them together with 25 cm long nails.

What’s your best gingerbread memory?

I don’t have a specific gingerbread memory, but in general, I often prefer scents over flavors. The smell of gingerbread baking in the oven is no exception and remains one of my strongest childhood and Christmas memories.

Photo: Johan Ridderstråle. 2024. Johan Ridderstråle