With a slew of special recipes to be shared and guarded over this holiday season, Mark Florimonte, director of food and beverage/executive chef at Ford’s Colony Country Club, has one he’s sharing with everyone.
The recipe is sweet but you’ll need about 2,000 pounds of ingredients, including 1,200 pounds of powdered sugar, 80 pounds of Hershey’s Kisses and 45 pounds of gummy fruit. Assembling the ingredients will take about 300 hours to produce a massive gingerbread village like the one Florimonte created and has on display at the country club until Dec. 27. Florimonte has put together 11 displays like it over the past 20 years, each time refining his method and making it a little more eye-popping.
[stextbox id=”news-sidebar” caption=”What you’ll need to make your own” float=”true” align=”right” width=”200″ bwidth=”0″]1,200 pounds of powdered sugar
80 pounds of Hershey’s Kisses
60 pounds malt balls
60 pounds of jelly beans
60 pounds of Gummy Bears
45 pounds of Twizzlers
45 pounds of gumdrops
30 pounds of chocolate pretzels
30 pounds of white chocolate
45 pounds of gummy fruit
40 pounds of velvet gumdrops
20 pounds of candy corn
10 pound of salt dough
10 pounds of marshmallows
24 quarts of egg white
6 pounds Cream of Tartar
125 Ice Cream Cones
200 pounds of gingerbread and
14 sheets of plywood[/stextbox]
“I’m all about the wow-factor,” Florimonte said about the display, which this year measures 96 square feet. “Sometimes it gets a little crazy. But that’s just who I am.”
This year’s gingerbread village depicts 15 scenes from childhood holiday memories, from Snoopy and Shrek to Rockefeller Center and St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City.
Those viewing the village can make a monetary contribution via a donation box with all proceeds going toward March of Dimes. Though it’s his first time building the village at Ford’s Colony – it’s his first full year there – all of his past displays have raised money for the non-profit to which he has a personal tie.
Florimonte’s daughter, Andrea, was born prematurely at 24 weeks, weighing just one pound and seven ounces. She spent her first four months in the neonatal intensive care unit at Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters, but Andrea, he said, is now a happy, healthy and gorgeous 14-year-old high school student.
His experience with his own daughter made Florimonte realize how much March of Dimes does for parents and children dealing with the unknowns of premature birth. It inspired him to use his skills to raise money for the organization while having some holiday fun.
Though it’s his first year at Ford’s Colony, Florimonte has been working in the food business since he was 14 years old, starting as a dishwasher in Long Island. He gained his formal training at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY. He worked in Manhattan for eight years for different venues, among them Rockefeller Center and New York Marriott Marquis on Times Square.
Florimonte has plans to dismantle the gingerbread village to make way for an upcoming wedding, although he’s willing to put a clear coat on the display for a business that would like to give the village a new home
