Food Experiences Are Cooking Up Engagement January 20, 2009 Rewarding a corporate team using pots and pans
By Joe David
Corporate groups, including employees from all levels of their companies, are heading into the kitchens of recreational cooking schools around the country. Although each school has its own style, all of them are using the cooking experience to form a tightly knit corporate family cooperatively focused on a single goal. The success of these ventures may be attributed to the universal appeal of food and the creative fun that comes from making your own mozzarella cheese or rolling out your own ravioli.
Award-winning cookbook author Joanne Weir, host of the PBS show Joanne Weir's Cooking Class, is among the latest to combine corporate teambuilding with a cooking school. Known for preparing traditional Mediterranean flavors with a light, California touch, Weir is currently working with communications trainer/coach Kraemer Winslow of San Rafael, Calif., to create team-building, sales-incentive or reward-driven programs of varying lengths, adapted to the specific needs of companies, here and abroad. "I want to use my cooking program," she says, "as catalysis to bring positive change to corporate relationships and inspire professional employee bonding."
If Weir's is the newest of the breed, one of the oldest is the Institute of Culinary Education (ICE). Corporate leaders looking for a program and approach that will suit their specific needs can't top what ICE provides. James Rarick, services director, Microsoft Corporation, reports that his management team spent a night at ICE in a relaxed setting gaining guidance while preparing a delicious meal. "By using a cooking class for team-building purposes," he says, "we changed the pace of our program and helped get everyone into a more creative mindset for the strategic corporate planning that followed."
Located in New York City, ICE was founded in 1975 by a former speed-reading instructor with a passion for sumptuous dining. This school was then known to the world as Peter Kump's New York Cooking School. In an interview with Bon Appétit magazine, Kump attributed his school's success to offering students more than "spectacular recipes to repeat step-by-step ad infinitum." He offered them basic principles that would free them to express their taste unencumbered by recipes. To guarantee success, he hired some of the most important names in food—James Beard, Simone Beck, Sara Moulton, Marcella Hazan and Anna Teresa Callen—to guide them.
In San Francisco, Hands On Gourmet (HOG) is offering another approach to corporate team-building classes by taking its food and cooking equipment on the road and delivering it wherever clients need it. HOG's specialty is interactive cooking classes for families and Fortune 500 companies. Its teaching goal, regardless of class size, is to inspire students to create remarkable and memorable meals through joint efforts.
The program can run for as little as three hours or for as long as a convention. To keep large groups manageable, classes are broken into groups of 10 people, each with its own professional chef to instruct them. The recipes are selected from a master menu prepared by Executive Chef Stephen Gibbs. According to Anne Woodard, who handles promotions for Gourmet Magazine, "Chef Stephen has a unique approach towards food—and entertains a crowd with his passion, gusto and special flare. Working with Hands On Gourmet was truly an enjoyable experience."
Companies seeking a little spice and class might consider the New Orleans Cooking Experience. Classes are held in a 1798 plantation home, built in a French West Indies Creole style. Two types of cuisine are taught at the school, Cajun and Creole. They use similar ingredients, but what distinguishes the cuisine is how the ingredients are prepared.
The curriculum was designed by Chef Frank Brigtsen, a protégé of the world-renowned chef Paul Prudhomme. And the programs were created by Judy Jurisich, the school's founder. BBC Destination Management has successfully booked clients like Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts and Miller Brewing Company here for corporate retreats. Cynthia McPhedran, meeting and event planner for the Miller Brewing Company, in Milwaukee, had this to say about her experience: "I cannot stop talking about the event at the House on Bayou Road…It was the perfect venue … and we loved the aprons and the hands-on experience 'New Orleans style.'"
Two other programs worth noting are The Chopping Block (Chicago) and the Blair House Inn Cooking School (near Austin, Texas). At The Chopping Block, classes are available for all skill levels and each is customized to a company's specific needs. The list of courses includes a specialty cocktail party demonstration, customized dinner demonstration and more. Adrienne L. Pearlman, of Allstate Insurance Company, thought her group's Chopping Block class "was one of the best, most enjoyable experiences I've had in a long time.It was challenging, interesting, educational and yummy."
At the Blair House Inn, the picturesque Texas Hill Country becomes the backdrop for classes. An hour from Austin and minutes away from the quaint town of Wimberley, the inn prides itself on its ability to bring together people with different backgrounds and abilities and to turn them into friends. The person responsible for this is the inn's Executive Chef Joseph "Joey" Kulivan. USA Today rates the school among the top 10 in America.
Although each of these schools has its own special style, most are able to offer team-building sessions with facilitators or lecturers for the non-cooking segment of the program. Because of the programs' general popularity, many more schools exist near you.
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