Pictured: The Ritz-Carlton, Sarasota pastry team in front of the giant gingerbread display at this beloved Sarasota hotel. Photo by Wes Roberts.

There’s something magical about a gingerbread house’s ability to harness dough, icing, chocolate and candy to transform everyday spaces into enchanting and edible wonderlands. At the Ritz-Carlton, Sarasota, the pastry team has used the medium of gingerbread to create massive displays that delight both guests and locals since 2002, with a brief hiatus during the pandemic. For the 2023 project, the pastry team took on a Christmas destination dreamt of by children across the globe.

“We had a couple of different options on the table, and we decided that we wanted to do something old-school with a modern twist. So, we created Santa’s Gulf Pole Workshop, and by doing that, we were able to incorporate reindeer, a sleigh, gifts and packages. The biggest thing for us was adding the conveyor belt that moves the packages around,” says Chris Vitanza, the Pastry Chef at the Ritz-Carlton, Sarasota. On the top floor of this two-story rendition of Santa’s famed workshop, Santa and Mrs. Claus discuss the lengthy naughty and nice list, while playful elves throw snowballs. Underneath them, on the first floor, other elves tend to the conveyor belt of wrapped gifts. “The conveyor belt was one of the big things because we wanted some movement in the house,” he adds. “We worked diligently with our engineering team which created a slow enough moving conveyor belt so that people could see the packages going by.”

Four-hundred lbs. of dark ginger molasses gingerbread, 350 lbs. of dark and white chocolate, 300 lbs. of assorted colored fondant, 250 lbs. of royal icing and 100 lbs. of candy make up the structure. “We built the house in two separate pieces. The pastry team was at an impasse and didn’t quite understand how we would make it come together. At one point, we brought both pieces of the house together and put the back piece with the front piece to create the whole image. At that moment, I saw the aha look on almost everybody on the team,” says Vitanza. Both children and adults will be wowed by the display, in which they can search for handmade toys and even the Grinch. Rudolph makes an appearance, but sweet Peeper, an adorable baby reindeer in training, steals the show with his gleeful grin. The workshop, which is on public view in the Ritz-Carlton, Sarasota’s lobby through January 1, took over 600 hours to complete. Here’s hoping that it will inspire even more hours of holiday joy for our community as we celebrate this festive season.

The Ritz-Carlton, Sarasota, 1111 Ritz-Carlton Dr., Sarasota, 941-309-2000, ritzcarlton.com/sarasota.

Pictured: The Ritz-Carlton, Sarasota pastry team in front of the giant gingerbread display at this beloved Sarasota hotel. Photo by Wes Roberts.

The Ritz-Carlton, Sarasota