Wynn Las Vegas Magazine by MODERN LUXURY

Wynn Las Vegas - 2017 - Issue 2 - Fall

Wynn Magazine - Las Vegas

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91 PHOTOGRAPHY BY CAT WALKING/GET T Y IMAGES (MODEL); EMILY WILSON (AGHABABYAN, CAKE) "I start every cake with a drawing," she says above the hum of her equip- ment. "But I'm approaching this fashion shoot a little more abstractly. Of course, I'm searching for inspiration in the fashion, but to me this shoot will be about giving the scene a variety of sizes and shapes that will look whimsi- cal and work within the space." For Aghababyan, there's no clear break between her love of fashion and of cakes (aside, naturally, from what's inside). "Fashion has always been a big influence for me," she says. As a child in Armenia, she modeled, acted and danced on television, "and even at that young age I had a vision for what my whole outfit needed to look before I walked out the door," she laughs. "I never thought I would end up making designer cakes. But usually we end up doing something we never thought we would, don't we? I think this is the best way." At 12 years old, she began channeling her creativity into baking in the kitchen with her mother, herself an accomplished baker. The difference, she says, was that "I don't like to do things like anyone else. I like to look at what everyone else is doing and then do my own thing." Her technical prowess and artistic innovation brought her from bakeries in Armenia and Russia to Bellagio in Las Vegas, where she created special occasion cakes. Five years in, she heard that Wynn Las Vegas was looking for a cake designer and was hired to fill a week's term. That week turned into a decade, and now she has her own little kitchen fiefdom here, a made-to-order custom cake design business, in which guests and non-guests alike can order from her specialties with 48 hours' notice, or design their own with the artist herself five days in advance. Much like a fashion designer, she seeks inspiration everywhere, even taking the occasional wander around the hotel. "I walk through Wynn and Encore, and I look everywhere. I can see things—colors, decorations—that I might not need then. But months later, I'll remember.." And though their artistic finesse boggles the mind of anyone seeing her cakes all at once for the first time, she maintains they are not about art for art's sake. "It has to look wonderful, but also taste delicious. As I've made more and more cakes, I've begun to understand how people can be made so happy over a small thing," she smiles gently. "You can have everything, but a lot of times we don't need that much to be happy. Sometimes just a piece of cake." 從左至右:Aghababyan精美作品的 局部;Chanel 2017秋冬系列的一 條禮服裙,是我們今期時尚專題 的靈感來源;Aghababyan與最終 完成的作品合影。 from left: A detail of Aghababyan's precise work; a Chanel dress from F/W 2017 used as inspiration for our fashion story; Aghababyan with a finished showpiece. 嗡嗡聲,A ghababyan的聲音更響亮:「但今次我會更多地運用抽象元素來配 合。當然我會從時尚潮流裡尋找靈感,但對於這個時裝專題,我覺得蛋糕的 作用是融入拍攝場景裡,以獨特別緻的形態,為場景帶來生動點綴。」 在 A ghababya n心目中,時尚和蛋糕同樣重要,兩者都有相通的內在特 質。她說:「時尚改變了我的人生。」A ghababya小時候生活在阿美尼亞, 曾經以模特兒、演員和舞者的身份出演電視節目。「當時年紀還很小,但已 經清楚知道自己應該以怎樣的造型出現在大家眼前,」她笑說,「我從來沒 有想過最終會成為一個藝術蛋糕師。但我們總會做些自己從未想過會做的 事情,對嗎?我覺得這其實是最好的選擇。」12歲時,她的興趣開始轉移到 和媽媽一起在廚房裡烘焙蛋糕,她當助手。她認為自己與其他人的區別在 於「我不喜歡做和別人一樣的東西。我會關注其他人做過什麼東西,我要做 不一樣的」。 A ghababya n憑著精湛的技術和極具藝術感的創新設計,先後在阿美 尼亞、俄羅斯任職蛋糕師,後來在拉斯維加斯的Bel lag io工作,專職為各種 特別的宴會場合設計蛋糕。在 Bel lag io工作5年後,她聽說永利拉斯維加斯 需要一位蛋糕設計師臨時填補一個星期的空缺,決定前去應徵並獲得聘 用。原本的一個星期後來逐漸變成了十年,如今A ghababya n在永利擁有一 方小小的廚房領地,還建立了Celebrat ion Ca kes蛋糕定制服務,酒店住客 和外來客人都可以提前4 8小時訂到A ghababya n的經典作品,或者請她根 據自己的要求特別定制一個蛋糕,提前5天時間預訂就好。A ghababya n就 像時裝設計師一樣,在生活裡處處留心發現靈感,就連在酒店裡散步,都會 找到新鮮啟發:「我散步穿過永利拉斯維加斯和萬利兩間酒店,映入眼中 的豐富色彩和裝飾,即使當時未必能用在創作裡,但很多個月之後,還是會 清晰地記起那些美麗的景象。」 A ghababya n製作的蛋糕充滿精緻的藝術氣息,讓第一次看見她作品 的人驚嘆不已,但 A ghababya n認為,蛋糕不應該只注重藝術感:「蛋糕要 看起來很美,同時還要吃起來很美味。我做了這麼多年蛋糕,越來越明白 到,人們只需要小小的一點美好就能獲得巨大的幸福感,」她溫柔地笑起 來,「你可以擁有世上一切,但能讓我們快樂起來的東西其實很簡單,有時一 件蛋糕就做到了。」

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