Continuum Café Serves-up Gingerbread, But Not as a Menu Item!

December 1, 2023

The gingerbread house creation depicting the Continuum was created with 100% edible decorations. — The Continuum Café Gingerbread House on display at the café serving area before joining the university’s holiday display in the Purdue Memorial Union.

What’s sugar and spice and everything nice, with a candy replica of Purdue Veterinary Medicine’s “Rockette the Circus Bear” sculpture on the side? Well, a gingerbread house designed by the talented team at the Continuum Café, of course!

As part of a festive holiday activity coordinated by the Purdue Food Company, the Continuum Café team of Tammie Hill (manager), Rebecca Watkins, Christianna Bradley, and Purdue student workers, Merin Manoj and Ashton Widjajanto, designed and built a gingerbread house depicting key elements of the café’s menu and layout along with some fun extra decorations. The Purdue Food Company is the Aramark-run food service enterprise that operates some 30 Purdue eateries on campus, including the Continuum Café.

Features of the Continuum Café Gingerbread House include 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, where it was placed after being donated to the college by supporters of the Art Museum of Greater Lafayette’s “Lions, Tigers, and Bears” community art project a few years ago.

The café team poses together with their gingerbread house creation in the Continuum Café. — The gingerbread house was designed and constructed by the café team of (left-right) Ashton Widjajanto, Merin Manoj, Rebecca Watkins, Tammie Hill, and Christianna Bradley.

The gingerbread house contest is open to all of the Purdue Food Company eateries. They each received a base house with the charge to decorate it using supplied candy along with optional extras, with the caveat that everything had to be edible. Voting now is underway via social media, so people can vote for their favorite gingerbread house. The Continuum Café entry was on display in the café until yesterday, when it was moved to be part of the PMU’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. Also, photos of the creations in the competition will be shared in a holiday slideshow at the Union.

The social media voting is scheduled to continue through December 8. Click here to cast your vote via Instagram for your favorite gingerbread house – and, don’t be surprised if it turns out to be the one crafted by our own Continuum Café team! (There are two groups of houses pictured on Instagram – the Continuum Café’s entry is #4 in Part 1).

Thanks to our Continuum Café team for using this competition to boost spirits in Lynn Hall during this holiday season!

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

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