Stripping the art of gingerbread house-making back to its European roots, a team of chefs at the Fort Harrison complete construction on the more than a quarter-ton Fort Harrison gingerbread house. The Fort Harrison serves as a religious retreat for the Church of Scientology.

The Fort Harrison’s Executive Chef, Certified Master Chef Barry Reid, designed the gingerbread house and completed it alongside Chef Daniele Cancain.

“We used 500 pounds of custom made gingerbread dough and about 100 pounds of fondant and icing,” said Chef Barry. “I do a design every year. Last year’s design was inspired by Louis Vuitton. This year I wanted to expand on that design and keep it very clean utilizing white and gold as the primary pallet and accenting it with Christmas colors. It turned out almost exactly how I designed it, which I am delighted about!”

Brought back to Europe by Crusaders in the 11th century, gingerbread itself has been baked and decorated since the late middle ages. The cookies, which were shaped like animals, kings and queens, were popular at Medieval fairs in England, France, Holland and Germany. Queen Elizabeth I of England was known to surprise her distinguished guests with gingerbread replicas of themselves.

The idea of creating houses out of gingerbread became popular in the early 1800’s, when the Brothers Grimm published “Hansel and Gretel.”

“In addition to the outdoor holiday decorations on the Fort Harrison, the gingerbread house going up signals the beginning of the holiday season for us,” said Lisa Mansell from the Church of Scientology’s Public Affairs Department. “Florida is not known for having white Christmases, unless you are talking about the sugar-white sand on Clearwater Beach. But we do have holiday decorations throughout downtown, the annual Winter Wonderland and of course, our gingerbread Fort Harrison to carry the spirit of the season forward.”

For more information about the Church of Scientology and the Fort Harrison – including a visual tour of the Fort Harrison and Flag Building, visit www.scientology-fso.org.

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About the Fort Harrison Religious Retreat
Originally constructed in 1926, the Fort Harrison has served as the center of Scientology and community activities since 1975. An 11-month restoration of the facility was completed in March 2009, with more than 350 local tradespeople and businesses participating in stripping its 267,000 square feet to bare beams and rebuilding and refurbishing it top to bottom. The Fort Harrison today serves as a religious retreat for Scientologists visiting Clearwater. It also provides a major venue for cultural and philanthropic galas, award ceremonies and benefit performances and events, utilized by dozens of nonprofit organizations.

The Scientology religion was founded by humanitarian and philosopher, L. Ron Hubbard. The first Church of Scientology was formed in the United States in 1954 and has expanded to more than 11,000 churches, missions and affiliated groups, with millions of members in 165 nations. To learn more, visit www.scientology.org.