Cooking Class Team Exercise

Our recent team building activity was a cooking class hosted by one of us — virtual style. 

It was a lot of fun to learn a new recipe together and try new things, like hosting a cooking class via video conference. Cooking together showcased soft skills like listening, teamwork, adapting, communication, multitasking, and just like Sims, improving cooking skills together in a social activity.



We decided in our FUN committee to make a Hello Fresh recipe, Grilled Halloumi Bun, but it wasn’t easy. There were a lot of considerations to consider for the virtual cooking class.

Here are some of the questions we found ourselves asking:



Should we hire a chef to host?

Should we purchase a pre packaged ingredient package to send to all staff?

If staff are located in multiple cities how will this work?

How much would these services cost per person?

What are the allergies/dietary restrictions to consider?

Is the recipe easily adaptable to accommodate these needs?

How much time will the recipe or event take?

What skill level of cooking will the recipe take?

We then did our research to determine where to find recipes since we decided to host it ourselves. Here are some great options that take into some of our considerations, like time and ease, for you to use if you decide to host your own cooking class:

HelloFresh (or any ingredient delivery service)

A great option is to look up a food delivery service that focuses on 30 minute recipes. You can often find the easy to read recipe cards on their website, and some will allow you to sort via dietary needs, or have tips to adjust the recipe. For our event we went with Hello Fresh as some team members have tried it; you can find their recipes here.

YouTube

A great resource is to search up favourite chefs and look up their curated YouTube playlists to find recipes that fit the criteria that your team has decided on. There are so many amazing chefs on YouTube. A few we considered are; Pickup Limes, Jamie Oliver, and Pro Home Cooks.

Food Network

A media channel that is all about Food. Their website contains lots of recipes. It is easy to get lost, but fun to search up some ideas, or filter what you need.

TikTok

Short form content platform TikTok often has easy to follow recipes in 10-15 second bites.Your team could review a TikTok recipe, like any of the ones Taste of Home’s Christina Herbst featured here, and rate it!

Fellow Team

Ask your teammates if they have any favourite recipes that would be fun to make together. Maybe they have a tried and true favourite that they would love to share, and would like to volunteer to be the host to demonstrate how to make it. This one has a nice personal touch and you get to know your team a little better.

Want some step by steps?

Here’s how we recommend to host your own Virtual Cooking Class

Before you start

Do your research! Figure out what questions need answering that will affect your team and the execution of the cooking event. Make a plan based on your research so your event will go smoothly, and everything is considered (ingredients, time, team needs).

Leading up

Set reminders for your team via calendar and internal communications to remember to get ingredients in advance/remind them about the event. Check in with anyone who has any questions. Share the recipe! Give handy tips regarding substitutions if people want to use the ingredients they already have on hand. Build the hype train of excitement!

Day of

Reshare the recipe with everyone! For the person hosting, remember to set up a clean kitchen space and do any ingredient prep in advance. Remind the team that they can do certain prep work to make the recipe easier to complete together if they wish. Check in with the team to see if they need anything and answer any questions. Troubleshoot any technical problems before the event! Dream of delicious foods.

During

Focus on cooking and being present with your team. Recognize and help others if they need help with any steps. Talk about stories and connect over food. Do not let anything burn!

After

Eat delicious food and talk about the experience. Was it fun? What did you think of the recipe? Did you try a new ingredient? Spend some time getting to know your team. Share photos of what you made together. Talk about the challenges. Continue eating delicious food.

Lessons Learned

Practice your tech set-up the day before! Our host had some technical problems trying to figure out a way to set up in the kitchen, while also having a second device with the team to pay attention to any questions. This would have been less stressful if set up and tested the day before.

Check in with your team to make sure they have a way to connect/participate. Some of our team struggled to get their technology working in a kitchen setting. This could have been prevented by checking in beforehand, and sending out a little guide showing how you could set up some technology in the kitchen (with options) in order to participate via the full experience. Designate someone that is not the host to help other team members if they have troubles via chat, or in person.

Give tips to your team on how to participate together while cooking in the kitchen in advance. If you are the host, ask them to share what ingredients they are using if they decide to substitute something, ask them how the recipe is going, check in with them (this was really hard while also trying to pay attention to your own cooking, fair warning). 

Results!

Check out some of our delicious creations from our event!

It was a lot of fun, but hosting a virtual cooking class was a little challenging too! We recommend watching and taking some hosting tips from chef hosts like Jamie Oliver, Masaharu Morimoto, or Sunny Anderson! It was nice to see everyone’s creations and to spend some time together learning something new.