Social media forces and the concept of “crowdwisdom” are dynamically shaping our service-based economy and our professional lives. I recently commented on a Technologizer article entitled “Bundle.com Crowdsources Reviews, Without the Crowd Knowing They’re Reviewing Anything”. This article is about data mining the social media motherload through analysis of real/near-time customer opinion. Wish I could “mine” opinions in our dining room! The Likert 5/7- point psychometric scale is common in the hospitality industry (cf. today’s Los Angeles Times 3.5 Star Restaurant Review of Tom Colicchio’s Craft Los Angeles). Since my desserts have a decided advantage over other dinner courses because they are last, an unbiased metric of a guest’s expectations based on the menu compared to actual dining experience would assist me in controlling quality in the bakery as well as suggesting dining room menu items.
As a Pastry Chef, I am always concerned with our product consistency (reliability); I secondarily focus on comparisons to other fine dining on the Las Vegas Strip. Does my over-the-top deep rich chocolate mousse rescue a mediocre entrée and thus make the credit card charge seem “worth it”? Conversely, if I “burn” my Creme Brulee, do I not only “torch” the server’s tip but forever destroy goodwill toward our restaurant’s brand? This Technologizer article reports that Bundle.com software technology able to analyze “crowd wisdom” not in terms of what the people say but what they do; they analyze, for example, credit card receipts. Furthermore, they mention the future launch of similar technology for the hospitality industry, a Restaurant Recommender site in New York City. Comments by piplzchoice, (AmplifiedAnalytics) reinforce the usefulness of this testing methodology and offer their own opinion-mining software.
There is definitely a place for psychometric measurement in the hospitality industry. As a chef, I need reliable information regarding my performance so I can adapt in order to improve customer satisfaction. Evaluating ”foodie” crowdwisdom by counting not opinion but action is a highly predictive metric; dare I say “putting your money where your mouth is”?
Royal icing is what holds everything together. I have used both royal icing made with egg whites and meringue powder and have found the end results to be the same. If you plan on eating the house, use the meringue powder since the egg white version is made with raw eggs. Be sure to keep your unused royal icing covered. I use a damp cloth laid directly on top of the surface of the icing, then cover the container with plastic wrap. Also make sure your pastry tips stay covered or you will find yourself constantly having to unclog them. Remember, royal icing dries quickly and hardens like cement. When using the icing to glue together the houses and adhere the candy, make sure it is not too thin. It should be stiff but still workable and not too dry. Store unused royal icing in the refrigerator. It may be necessary to beat it a bit to obtain the proper consistency after it has been in the refrigerator for awhile. 
I have found that the best way to bake gingerbread and keep distortion to a minimum is to bake it on some sort of silicone baking sheet, such as a Silpat. I transfer my frozen gingerbread to the Silpat, making sure to remove any parchment paper on the back. Keep similar sized pieces together on one sheet for even baking. I always bake my gingerbread so it will harden to a crunchy state once it has cooled. You will have problems if the dough is still soft after it has cooled. The moisture will cause the pieces to sag and the candy may fall off. Allow your pieces to cool completely before trying to pick them up from the baking sheet. This is VERY important if you have pieces with a lot of cut work. If you try to lift it too soon, you will break the cut work. 
If you are familiar with sewing, you know that when you cut out a pattern the idea is to lay your pieces out on the fabric in such a way as to use the least amount of fabric to get all of the pieces cut. The same holds true when cutting out gingerbread. When I cut out my pieces, I plan how to get the most out of each sheet of the gingerbread I rolled out. My motivation is simple – I don’t like rolling out the dough! A basic house has three pattern pieces: the roof, the front/back and the sides. To make the basic house, you need to cut two of each piece. I cut out my front first, though the order of cutting makes no difference if you have taken time to plan the layout. My second piece would be the back and I would lay it out so it has a side wall in common with the piece I already cut. This saves me time because it is one less cut to make. When I cut the roof and side pieces, I will use the same logic and lay common walls next to each other. When making long cuts such as roofs and house structures, using a long French knife and cutting with a rocking motion instead of a pulling motion helps keep distortion to a minimum. I also try to cut my pieces out on a cutting board so I can constantly move and turn it as needed. Cut smaller pieces out of scraps to minimize waste. 