Hallowed Hands: When a Grand Hotel’s Teams Transform Gourds into Artistry
Behind the polished mahogany and gilded interiors of a storied establishment, something rather more primal unfolds each autumn. Teams across Hotel Café Royal converge in friendly competition, carving pumpkins with the same precision they bring to their daily craft.
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There is a particular moment when the ordinary transforms into the theatrical, when the hands that craft exceptional service turn their attention to something altogether more ancestral and playful. At Hotel Café Royal, this moment arrives each October, as teams from across the building gather to carve pumpkins with an intensity that belies the festive occasion.
What begins as a scattered collection of gourds becomes, through competition and collaboration, a remarkable exhibition of ingenuity. The kitchen brigade, the front of house staff, the housekeeping teams, the concierge desk workers: each brings their own sensibility to the blade, their own vision of what a jack o’-lantern might become. Some carved designs speak to classic horror; others venture into abstraction or portrait work, the kind of thing that requires steady hands and an artist’s eye.
The culinary team, those custodians of taste and presentation, are entrusted with the judging. They examine each entry with the same rigour they might apply to a new tasting menu, weighing technique against imagination, execution against originality. It is, in many ways, a masterclass in how competition can unite rather than divide an organisation; the rivalry is cordial, the stakes pleasingly inconsequential yet somehow deeply felt.
The Grill Transformed
Once the judging concludes and the victors are crowned, the gourds receive their final honour. The Café Royal Grill, that distinguished dining room with its storied heritage and sophisticated patina, becomes the gallery for this ephemeral art. Candlelit from within, each pumpkin glows with an amber luminescence, creating an atmosphere that hovers between convivial and delightfully eerie. It is a reminder that even within the most refined establishments, there remains room for spectacle, for the pleasures of tradition and the joy of collective creativity.
The In Room Dining team claimed victory this year, their designs selected as the finest expressions of the season’s brief reign. In many ways, this victory is fitting: they are the craftspeople who work behind the scenes, who understand the marriage of aesthetics and sustenance, who know that presentation is as vital as flavour.
Such moments define the character of a great hotel. It is not merely in the thread count of the linens or the calibre of the wine list that excellence resides, but in the occasions when an entire community of talented people comes together, sets aside hierarchy, and creates something unexpected. A pumpkin carving competition, viewed from this angle, becomes something far more resonant: a small ceremony of belonging, a celebration of the human hands and inventive minds that keep an institution thriving.
Imagery courtesy of Hotel Café Royal (@hotelcaferoyal).