An All New Team Building Experience.

We all know how important it is as a company, family, church group, or even couple to work as a team. You know the old saying “There is no ‘I’ in the word Team?” Well, lucky for you, you and use your ‘I’ when you try this team building experience in the fabulously equipped k’I’tchen here at Sugar Hollow.

The main purpose of this exercise is two-fold – one, learning to work in multiple teams to achieve a common goal (a meal to eat) and two getting the chance to talk one on one over a great meal that everyone had a hand in preparing.

This team building experience is quickly catching on around the country with culinary schools and restaurants participating. With that service, a hefty price tag can be expected – the food, instructor, number of people can cause the price to add up quickly. Why not take some of that money and invest instead in a retreat for your employees (we have a great one night, two day plan that is very popular) and cook a simple meal that everyone pitches in on?

And to really mix it up, put different people from different departments and give a few small prizes for the group that creates the best dish, the one that works best together, the one that gets the best deal for the food they are preparing, etc – you get the picture. This gets everyone motivated to do a good job and take the cooking experience “seriously.”

Now, how can you execute this plan?

The retreat planner double-checks dietary restrictions for the attendees of the retreat. With that in mind, the planner comes up with a menu with the number of courses mirroring the number of groups that will be needed. The meal should consist of relatively simple fare (see sample menus below) that are easy to make. If you are having a really large retreat, it may not be feasible for everyone to participate and should be left up to the retreat members’ choice – the non-participants can help judge.

Now, once them menu has been chosen, break the group up into small teams (probably no more than four per team to give everyone a chance to talk and communicate better). You can choose the teams by departments, drawing straws, or however you see fit.

Let the preparations begin! Each group prepares their portion of the meal. The groups are allowed to converse with each other and even help – if they choose (can be considered and interdepartmental transfer – haha).

Designate one person from each group to help keep the flow of the meal going once the courses are ready to be served.

We mentioned above about how this can work with families, church groups and couples. Basically the principle is the same, splitting up into groups (or if it is a couple, just go ahead and work together for the whole meal, and rekindle the romance).

With the church group, it can be split up with the parents and kids (if they are old enough), parent/kid teams (one or two adults with the children). The same split up can be used with the family as well – kids and parents split up, or split up the parents between the children.

Regardless of what kind of group you have, this can be a really fun exercise that teaches the value of working together towards a common goal – dinner!

Sample Menu Idea:

Appetizer: Baked Brie with Crackers, Spinach and Artichoke Dip in a bread bowl with sourdough bread

Salad: The ideas here are endless

Main Course: Something simple like Steak or Chicken on the Grill, homemade pizza, spaghetti, soup.

Sides: Again, simple is key, so items like macaroni and cheese (not from a box), baked potatoes, and steamed vegetables are always a good choice and not overly expensive.

Desserts: Well… everyone likes dessert so anything from chocolate pudding (ahem… we mean mousse), cheesecake, brownies a la mode, apple pie, etc. Now, we would suggest doing a couple of different desserts to keep it interesting!

Drinks: We suggest the retreat planners take care of this – especially if there is going to be wine, or other alcohol related beverages served,