Recipe for Success

Team-building classes mix it up in the kitchen

Peter Malcom
Pauline Frommer

ON A RECENT FRIDAY afternoon, accountants from KPMG Seattle and would be-employees are donning their aprons for their own version of the Iron Chef at Seattle’s Blue Ribbon Cooking and Culinary School. The local branch of the international audit, tax and advisory firm regularly brings campus recruits interested in a career in the public accounting to Blue Ribbon (www.blueribboncooking.com) for a few hours of cooking, eating and networking. A murmur of light hearted chit-chat emanates from the group , but some of the participants seem a bit on the edge in this new environment. The group of 50-half recruits, half employees-are divided into six teams, each with a featured ingredient and each headed by a professional chef. They are given a recipe, supplies and an hour to prepare enough bite-sized appetizers for the entire group. Let the bonding begin. For years, companies have sought activities that promote team building. And for more years still, people have been cooking and eating. It was only a matter of time before the two ingredients were mixed.. The results? An amalgamation of cooking, eating and team building- and fun, effective way to strengthen personal bonds with organizations. Take the case of one of the Blue Ribbon Clients, Work Tank Seattle, and an ad agency. Cynarah Alcantara, a Work Tank account manager, brough her in-house creative team and a group of clients to Blue Ribbon for what she hoped would be an afternoon of bonding between two entities that seldom interact. “It was funny: When we first arrived everyone was doing their own thing and staying within the comfort zone,” Alccantara says. “By the end of the event- after all the cooking, chopping and eating together-the two worlds had mixed and everyone had a great time.” Similar team-building are offered across the country. Catherine Margles, president and founder of Creative Cooking School Inc. (www.creativecookingschool.com) and it’s companion program, Las Vegas Teambuilding believes the inherent bonding power of food is one reason business are beginning to take note. “Breaking bread and enjoying a meal together are universal items,” says Margles, a Costco member. “Food brings people together; it’s just a natural thing.” Silvia Bianco, of chefsilvia.com, notices a similar phenomenon during the custom team-building she offers in the Connecticut area. “It’s part of the mystery of food,” says Bianco, a Costco member. “Without you realizing it you’re getting to know these people in a powerful new context, and once that happens you can’t go back to work and not care about them.” For Margles a chef with an MBA, team-building with cooking was a natural merging of her passions-business and food. And though her team-building events emphasize fun and camaraderie, her clients also practice skills that apply in the office. “Many lessons in the kitchen translate to the corporate world,” Margles says. “In fact, the kitchen represents microcosm of the working world, with deadlines decision making and cooperation necessary to succeed.” Another benefit of cooking is its all-inclusive nature. While some of it’s teambuilding competitors (rock climbing, obstacle courses, paint-balling and the like) highlight physical limitations, cooking tends to level the playing field. Back at Blue Ribbon, and hour has passed and the energy level and cooperative spirit are tangible. Good-natured chatting and hearty laughs blend with the sounds of whisking, slicing and banging. Later, the culinary creations are judged, with the chocolate, crab and sushi groups winning top honors. At 6:30 p.m., after several hours of cooking networking and snacking, the group files out, sharing a communal connection that wasn’t there a few hours prior. “You see these people come together,” says Vanessa Johns-Webster, Blue Ribbon’s director and a Costco member,” and at the end you see them sit down with all the food they’ve prepared –all that they’ve created together. That’s what team is all about.