For the 2015 holiday season, staff at The Ritz-Carlton, Dove Mountain in Marana, Ariz., built a gingerbread house structurally sound enough that guests could dine inside it.
Every year around Christmas, like many hospitality establishments, The Ritz-Carlton, Dove Mountain in Marana, Ariz., builds a gingerbread structure. For the 2015 holiday season, staff wanted to add an experiential component by building a house structurally sound enough that guests could dine inside it, cozied up to a fireplace.
Unveiled on December 8 and extending through December 23, the 20-foot-tall structure was available for public view. Private dining inside, for up to six guests, had a $150 price tag, plus meal costs.
Made up of 400 lbs. of honey, 856 lbs. of sugar, 350 lbs. of flour, 100 lbs. of ginger powder, 50 lbs. of cinnamon, 250 eggs and 10 lbs. of nutmeg, the structure was put together by five chefs. The baking began in October and lasted for weeks, pastry chef Amanda Taylor told the Phoenix-based Arizona Republic, with dozens of sheets baked at a time and pallets filled with gingerbread “bricks” lining the halls outside the kitchen.
The frame was completed by construction workers in the far left corner of the lobby by the week before Thanksgiving, after which chefs worked for three days in eight-hour shifts affixing the “bricks” to the house.
The house’s materials are technically edible but are reinforced by two-by-fours and plywood—and the gingerbread was baked in a way that dried it out, making it more durable, but not particularly tasty. “Anyone eating this gingerbread would know right away it’s pretty bad,” Taylor said. “I’d never recommend it.”
Apart from the gingerbread, the royal icing mortar, candy cane window frames and gumdrop embellishments offered some opportunity for minor vandalism—but when that occurred, Taylor said, the staff didn’t mind making repairs.
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