July 13, 2011
Vol 13 No 28
January 28, 2015
Bringing life to ice Recipes
Show Off Your Sweet Side
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Around Town
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Feature Section
5
Business
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Band selected to perform
Healthy Living
Photo by Ray Rockwell Terrence Hamner works on a sculpture in his studio in St. Louis. Hamner will be one of the ice carvers competing at Fete de Glace in downtown St. Charles on Saturday Jan. 31.
Professional ice carvers fight for bragging rights at Fete de Glace By Brett Auten Terrence Hamner has the date circled in red every year on his calendar. On Saturday, Jan. 31 the Fete de Glace (The Festival of Ice) will mark its 17th year in historic Downtown St. Charles. Each and every year, a large crowd gathers between the 100 and 200 blocks of North Main Street to watch professional ice carvers bring their art to life in a friendly competition. With the help of chain saws, power grinders, sanders, chisels and hand saws, carvers like Hamner draw “oohs” and “ahhs” aplenty with their amazing work. “The Fete de Glace is the bragging rights,” Hamner said. “It’s an honor just to be invited. It is the first and biggest competition in Missouri. This is the crown jewel for ice carvers.” For competitors like Hamner, the chance to show off your skills in front of an appreciative crowd makes it all worth while. “You want to do the best you can and push the limit of the ice,” Hamner said. “This isn’t something I’m hired to do.
It’s something I want to do and I want to see the crowd love it.” Hamner got into ice carving during his many-year stint as a chef. In the late 1970s, he picked up the technique from a Swiss chef while working at a restaurant in downtown St. Louis. Hamner ended up bouncing around many fourand-five-star kitchens in the St. Louis area. “Being a gourmet chef gave me a lot of opportunities to do carvings,” Hamner said. After segueing from the kitchen to actually working for an ice carving company, a severe neck injury put Hamner on the shelf for a few years. Once healthy and rejuvenated he had a plan. “I decided I was going to hoc everything and start my own ice carving company,” Hamner said. “I had to put in a pattern room and dropped a 12-foot-by-20-foot freezer next to my house. I would work inside the freezer. I never did it before but knew it could work.” Fast forward nearly 10 years and
Hamner and his company, Ice Cuisine, is one of the busiest ice carving companies in the Show-Me state. Hamner focuses his ice art on precision and grandeur. See ICE on page 2
Battlegrounds names new partners
“American Sniper” photo courtesy of Warner Bros
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