Among corporate team building themes, cooking is a popular one: everyone must eat (and drink) anyway, the skills involved are manageable, everyone can contribute and must collaborate, and it is not really work related. There are also many professionally trained chefs who are not willing to become a restaurant chef.
SizzleWorks is one such venue. Chef Carol teaches cooking in this institute and also hosts corporate team building events. Twenty or so of us arrived at 4:30pm, wide-eyed, a bit apprehensive, and anticipating fun. And they delivered.
They divided us into three teams and set up a small competitive spirit among us. Each team performed a task and tag-team for the whole meal. Everyone was kept busy and everyone learned something: about foods, cooking, themselves, or their teammates. The rotation of the stations went quickly. Pretty soon, you found yourself helping someone making risotto for a party of twenty. Wow. Did I do that?
The chicken, risotto, and desserts were all wonderful. As I reflect, the chefs used us mostly as kitchen assistants that performed preparation work: slicing the squash, fanning the strawberries, whipping things together, wrapping chicken breast with prosciutto, etc. They designed the menu, adjusted the seasoning, did the actual cooking (other than letting us stir), and plated all the dishes. We looked at the plate and said, “Wow! I fanned that strawberry!” We took a bite and said, “Hey. This tastes good. And I made the chicken/squash/risotto/dessert!” Everyone felt good. Excellent evening. Teams built. Mission accomplished.