Workplaces are increasingly diverse and spread out, which is a great thing. However, with a diverse group of people with varying interests, choosing something that’s fun for everyone is a challenge.
We’ve got some good news: everyone needs to eat. Beyond just needing to eat, most people actually enjoy it. You can add even more entertainment to the mix with cooking classes or other cooking team-building activities. Cooking activities are also great for incorporating the culture of whatever location you might be in. For example, if a certain office is hosting an event, you could focus the activities on recipes local to that area. The Surf Office team did a paella cooking class in Mallorca, which everyone raved about!
Here are some of our favorite cooking-themed activities to bring your team together over good food and great conversation. Make sure to follow our blog for lots of other team-building ideas and fun group activities for work.
10 Cooking team-building activities
1. Gingerbread House Building
Enhance everyone’s holiday season with a little festive cooking and decor. You can build the houses from scratch, including cooking the ginger cookie bases, or you can provide everyone with kits. You can also make it a competition with a panel of judges who determine the best flavor, most original theme, prettiest, decor, etc. This is also a creative idea for virtual teams, as the moderator can send out baskets of supplies (or ready-made kits) in advance, and have everyone log in to make and share their creations. Then you can display the gingerbread houses in the office or allow everyone to take theirs home to add to their seasonal decor. No matter how you choose to execute gingerbread building, it’s a festive idea that can enhance a special time of year, bring out lots of laughs, and help people to explore their creative side.
2. Cooking Around the World
Few things bring as much pleasure to true foodies as trying new foods from different cultures. Facilitate this - and learn more about your diverse workforce - by setting up an “around the world” cooking activity. This can be a contest where people compete, or a group activity where people just have fun and enjoy some delicious dishes like Sashimi, Paella, Pho, Pad Thai, or Tacos Al Pastor. You can even find experts online who can guide a larger group through traditional meals from several different countries. This is best for small or medium size teams, and can work for in-person or virtual events. It’s a nice way of making everyone feel included, learning more about the cultures of the people you work with, creating stronger connections amongst your team. For very small teams, you might just pick a few recipes from different cultures and have everyone work together to create them. Larger teams can break into smaller groups and pick a recipe that they’re familiar with and compete alongside the other groups. The best part is trying all of the dishes and choosing favorites - while learning something new!
3. Healthy Eating Workshops
This is a great option for organizations who are currently focused on health or wellness initiatives. If you are attempting to get your team to form some healthier habits, set the tone by hosting a workshop with an expert dietician or nutritionist. Help everyone to understand that healthy eating is the foundation of a long and active lifestyle. Then the discussion can move toward practical nutrition tips, recipes, and other ideas that can help everyone to make the most of healthy cooking. Have a few simple, low-calorie appetizers (think veggies and hummus) out for the group, and end the session by whipping up a few dishes that will be crowd-pleasers at home. Some easy examples are blackened fish with creole sauce, green chili and kale quesadillas, or chicken breast parmesan. This activity is a great addition to any activities that are already focused on wellness, but it still offers the fun and flexibility of actively cooking.
4. Sushi Making Class
Making sushi is not easy. No matter how simple the experts at your local sushi shop make it look, there is an ancient and practiced technique that leads to the best sushi. You may want to research your local options to see if there is a sushi restaurant that offers classes, or if there are any chefs in the area who host classes. If you can’t find anyone to moderate it, you can still build out your own program. Make sure you have supplies for everyone, including bamboo mats, chopsticks, sushi knives, and several ingredients like fresh tuna or salmon, avocado, sticky rice, and seaweed papers. Buy more than you think you’ll need - for many people it takes a few tries to get a sushi roll they like! You can find guidance on YouTube or just play around with some techniques, and make sure the group knows how to replicate their success at home.
5. Paint Your Own Cookies
These popular kits allow everyone to design and frost cookies using their own creativity and edible paint. The most popular styles use a stencil to create a cute design that can be painted with edible paint pallets. You can find lots of options online; we suggest looking for a kit that has everything you’ll need, or you can put together your own using supplies like these from The Cookie Countess. This is another activity that can be great for virtual teams. With the availability of online supplies, you can easily ship the necessary components to different areas and then log into a video conference to share your creations. It’s also a fun activity for in-person groups, as everyone can view each others’ creations and get new ideas for their own designs.
6. Cooking Challenge
These sorts of challenges have become more common in recent years, and for good reason. The popularity of shows like Chopped, BBQ Brawl, or The Great British Baking Show have brought the idea of cooking as a contest into everyone’s household. Your team can demonstrate their own cooking skills - and maybe win a cool prize while they’re at it - with your own take on a cooking competition. There are several different competitions you can run, so use your creativity. You can try a time-based competition, where everyone has the same recipe and ingredients available, and the fastest team to compose an edible result wins. Another popular style comes from the show “Chopped”, where people get a few unrelated, and seemingly random ingredients, and people need to come up with their own recipes. As an example, the basket of ingredients might include oranges, bacon, and chocolate chips. Someone might make an orange chocolate chip pancake, whereas another person might make bacon brownies with an orange glaze.
Other culinary competition ideas include a chili cook-off, where everyone brings in their own special blend, or a BBQ contest where the team gets to try everyone’s grilled creations to see which is the winner. If you do host a type of cooking challenge, make sure to have a well-stocked kitchen with all of the other supplies your chefs will need. Pots, pans, cooking oils, spices, etc. all make a big difference in how foods are prepared, so it’ll be tough to whip up any all-star creations without the right tools. For that reason, these sorts of contests are best left for in-person events. Some companies also add in a little extra fun by making it a management or leadership team event. For example, to show your employees appreciation, you could have all of the managers participate in a BBQ competition. The bosses will be out making and serving up food, and the employees will be judging the various dishes. This is a nice gesture that offers an inexpensive way of feeding your team while also encouraging them to relax on work time.
7. Baking Class
People tend to feel like they are either bakers or cooks. Not many people feel especially skilled at whipping up dinner as well as a delicious dessert for after. You can help people to improve these skills by hosting a baking class at a local shop, or bringing in a pastry chef for a day of fun. If you choose to host it yourself, you’ll need to create a list of supplies and make sure you have everything from the right amounts of sugar and eggs to mixing bowls, spatulas, and an oven (or two). For this reason you may even look at leasing a commercial kitchen for the day. The best part is employees have lots of sweet treats to take home, which is a bonus for your employees as well as their families. A baking class is also a nice idea if you are in a particularly cold or wintery location. It really adds that extra cozy factor! For more indoor team-building activities, make sure to follow our blog.
8. Cocktail Making (and Drinking) Class
For a fun, vibrant, and energetic activity, you might shift away from food and give more thought to beverages. Cocktails have gotten so sophisticated, participants can flex their creative muscles just as much as if they were cooking meals. You can find resources online for hosting your own class, or you can hire a professional mixologist. Some bar or restaurant venues also offer classes that you can sign up for. In some cases there are special themes, such as cocktails for a cozy night in, or spooky, steaming concoctions for Halloween season. Note: make sure to include some non-alcoholic options too. Not everyone enjoys drinking alcohol or feels comfortable doing so around colleagues. Make sure to come up with some fun “mocktail” options so that everyone finds a drink they can enjoy. The truth is that drinking can add a layer of connection and team bonding to various events, so closing out your next team-building retreat or all-day meeting with a happy hour or cocktail making class is a good option for strengthening relationships.
9. Cooking for Charity Activity
Helping those in need is a powerful way to increase gratitude, connection, and job satisfaction. By helping to make food for people who might be struggling, you can highlight your commitment to your community and provide a fun activity for your team. Talk to local schools, homeless shelters, nursing homes, or food banks to see how you might be able to help. Ask representatives about which dishes they are in need of, and how your team might assist. For instance, your team may end up making sandwiches and packing lunches for kids in a school program, or maybe you’ll work together to whip up a huge batch of soup for a local old-folks center. Either way, working together is fun, and everyone will experience the happiness that comes with helping others.
10. Pizza Making
This is one of the simplest and cheapest cooking-related activities. Since it’s pretty basic, it’s easy to add to any team event, whether as a lunch option or a way to end an evening. You can also divide the group up into smaller teams to compete against each other. You can find recipes online, so it shouldn’t be hard to shop for supplies. You’ll need things like pizza dough, mozzarella cheese, sauce, and chopped veggies. Don’t forget about the rolling pins, baking pans, pot-holders, and other supplies that go along with cooking a made-from-scratch meal. For bonus points, get enough supplies so that everyone can make an extra pizza to take home. The next time they’re hungry and pop the pizza into their oven, they’ll think back on this day fondly.
Incorporate cooking into your team events
Whether you are planning a department meeting, an active team-building retreat, or a multi-day, all-hands-on-deck event, you’ll need to incorporate mealtimes as well as some socializing. Rather than having everyone just break an hour for lunch, why not build in a fun and educational activity? Cooking activities are a great way to do both: enjoy some time together, while making the meal times more fun and team-focused.
Effective team-building retreats are the right mix of education, connection, and social events - but that mix is a fine balance that can be hard to achieve. Let Surf Office help you to plan the logistics of your ideal event, creating moments that your team will never forget. Companies across the globe turn to Surf Office to plan meaningful local experiences for teams - from a fettuccine and tiramisu cooking class in Rome, to authentic pizza-making in Napoli, or pastel de nata workshop in Lisbon - we’ve got you covered!
