Continuum Café Gingerbread House Takes Prize for Creativity in Purdue Food Company Competition

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The results are in, and the Continuum Café’s entry in the Purdue Food Company’s Gingerbread House Contest is a prize winner! Not surprisingly, the café’s entry, depicting key elements of the café’s menu and layout along with some fun extra decorations, won the “Little Miss Inventor” prize. The café’s gingerbread house design team was recognized for “… their super creative and cute rendition of their location.” 

The gingerbread house contest was open to all of the Purdue Food Company eateries. The Continuum Café entry was on display in the café initially until it was moved to be part of the Purdue Memorial Union’s holiday display on the main floor of the Union, along with the gingerbread houses that were created by the eateries that are located in the Union. The Continuum Café Gingerbread House featured the sandwich bar (complete with fixings like bread, cheese, lettuce, and tomato), the Coke machine, and a very realistic replica of Rockette the Circus Bear – the sculpture that sits in the curved hallway adjacent to the café.

People were able to vote for their favorite design via social media. The first place winner in the social media voting is the gingerbread house designed by the crew at Jersey Mike’s, called Luigi’s Haunted Mansion. Second place goes to Au Bon Pain for their entry entitled Joyeux Noel. The third place winner is the 3rd St. Market for its Barbie Christmas Cottage.

Additional prizes given out are:

• “Mr. Messy” – to Sol Toro for their Taco Christmas Chaos
• “Mr. Tall” – to Panera for their Baguette Bell Tower
• “Little Miss Tidy” – to the PMU Prep Kitchen for their prim and perfect Dino Duplex
• “Little Mr. Christmas” – to the Purdue Food Company Catering department for their Beary Merry Christmas Wonderland

The Continuum Café Gingerbread House remains on display at the Purdue Memorial Union along with six others. The complete set of gingerbread houses can be viewed on a slide show on the display monitor in the hallway near the PMU Great Hall. The various designs also can be viewed on the Purdue Food Company Instagram page. There are two groups of photos. The Continuum Café design is in group one (the fourth image). The others are in group two. 

The Purdue Food Company is the Aramark-run food service enterprise that operates some 30 Purdue eateries on campus, including the Continuum Café. Congratulations to the Continuum Café Gingerbread House team of Tammie Hill (manager), Rebecca Watkins, Christianna Bradley, and Purdue student workers, Merin Manoj and Ashton Widjajanto, for their prize-winning entry! 

Writer(s): Kevin Doerr | pvmnews@purdue.edu