A dark-chocolate tree weighing 2,250 pounds now anchors an edible forest on the ARIA casino floor, part of a sprawling fall display called Autumn Atelier that opened Wednesday and will stick around through Nov. 8. The installation at ARIA Patisserie includes chocolate pumpkins, sugar-spun mushrooms, blown-sugar flowers and fondant gnomes tucked into what the resort describes as an enchanted autumn forest.
Autumn Atelier opened Sept. 16 at ARIA Patisserie on the Las Vegas Strip, according to FOX5 Vegas. Beyond the towering centerpiece tree, the display uses more than one ton of dark chocolate and thousands of pounds of sugar in total, the outlet reports. That includes 250 pounds of handmade chocolate pumpkins, more than 200 pounds of edible chocolate soil, 150 pounds of blown-sugar flowers and 150 feet of sugar vines woven through the scene.
The finer details pile up fast: 50 pounds of chocolate river rocks, 30 pounds of sugar mushrooms, 20 pounds of sugar autumn leaves, 8 pounds of chocolate acorns and 40 sugar butterflies, per the same FOX5 Vegas report. A chocolate pumpkin patch and four handcrafted fondant gnomes round out the woodland scene, alongside sugar-crafted foliage meant to mimic the turning season.
The Pastry Chef Behind the Forest
Executive Pastry Chef Mathieu Lavallee designed Autumn Atelier along with his team, according to a report from vegas24seven.com. Lavallee said the goal was capturing the true spirit of autumn through edible artistry, the outlet notes. The display is complemented by a specially crafted menu at ARIA Patisserie, which sits on the casino floor inside ARIA Resort & Casino and stays open 24 hours a day.
How It Compares to ARIA's Past Sugar Work
ARIA's pastry team has pulled off large-scale edible art before. In May 2023, the resort unveiled a chocolate display honoring the Las Vegas Aces, set up in the patisserie's window and built with edible silhouettes of A'ja Wilson, Kelsey Plum and Jackie Young alongside a basketball and the city skyline, according to News 3 Las Vegas. That tribute used 100 pounds of chocolate, 100 pounds of fondant and 80 pounds of sugar, and took a five-person pastry team 92 hours to complete, the station reported.
By comparison, Autumn Atelier's ingredient list dwarfs that earlier project many times over, reflecting a far larger footprint on the casino floor. Las Vegas has become something of a proving ground for elaborate chocolate work; French pastry chef Amaury Guichon runs a chocolate-art studio in the city's Arts District, according to Las Vegas City Cast, and has been profiled by My Modern Met for sculptures described as museum-worthy.
For now, ARIA's own forest of chocolate and sugar is drawing its own foot traffic on the Strip, with nearly two months left before it comes down. Visitors passing through the resort can find it on the casino floor at ARIA Patisserie, open around the clock through Nov. 8.
