Culinary Teambuilding Programs

Culinary teambuilding events are a fun and effective way to bring your team together, bond as a group and learn more about each other through food preparation and dining together.

Iron Chef Challenge
Chili Cookoff Challenge

What they are:
Your Team building event will include your group preparing a three to four course menu and by the way, no recipes are given to the teams—(though ingredient notes can be provided)- inspiration, creativity, collaboration, and trust in each other rule the day- that’s where the team building comes in!

Objectives:
The objective of this program is to use food preparation and the gourmet meal that is produced, as an active and powerful metaphor. The group will experience all the components of a functioning team, bond together and get to know each other in a unique environment outside of the work place.

The Typical Experience:
A typical Iron Chef Challenge culinary team building experience begins with your participants arriving and wondering what they will be doing for the next few hours. They are handed an apron and asked to wash their hands. Soon, an Iron Chef trainer begins the program with a brief but important orientation of the day. The group is quickly formed into teams either by our staff or by yours before the start of the event. Teams will spend time with our trained facilitator getting warmed up for the challenge ahead. Next, each team then is presented with their culinary challenge and chooses a team leader –the “chef de cuisine” to oversee and help organize the menu. Now the fun begins as the teams begin creating their culinary masterpieces. The food preparation process lasts for approximately 2.5 to 3 hours.

Your outcome has been achieved: a multi-course, gourmet meal worthy of a four star restaurant. We take a moment to admire each team’s creations and celebrate the success of the group’s effort — before the judges step in to try each food item and confer on the winning team. Then its time to eat! It’s during this period that the real team building occurs- this is the special time – when everyone starts sharing about what part they played and they are just people and not a company employee.

After the meal, the value continues as the event’s experience is summarized by the Iron Chef facilitator. He reminds the group of the delicious gourmet meal they created and asks the most important question of the day, “If you can do this team exercise, with the challenges you experienced today, what else can you do as a unified team?” The answer to this, is within each of them: Anything! The facilitator will challenge them to discover the meaning of the exercise and how to apply it to their current working world.