Team Building Cooking Classes
Building Communication Skills with a Culinary Twist!
Be SENSEational! (AKA SENSEational Communication)
What is a Team Building Cooking Class like?
Looking for a new way to get your staff energized, or a for a special reward for achievements? Chef JoAnna offers several exciting, fun and educational Team Building options to meet your specific needs. Each session is customized, so that each experience is unique, perfect, and memorable. You may have discovered the perfect event for your business group!
- There's NO strenuous physical activity. No trust-falls. No hula-hoops. No zip-lines. Nothing requires any special exertion.
- Choose a "short & sweet" session as a fun reward, or invest a little more time for an in-depth structured team-building experience.
- Doesn't matter if you can't fry an egg - Everyone's got the skills necessary to be successful in Chef JoAnna's Team Building classes.
Click for a full-color flyer!Successful Previous Clients:
to see if your date is available.
Team Building Cooking Competition...in your office!
Companies can avoid the expense of man-hours spent traveling to & from an offsite venue. Chef JoAnna understands that time is money, and helps you realize a savings advantage. Chef JoAnna will come to your office and do the entire session onsite. (Off-site venues are available, upon request. You may choose to host lunch at the venue, too!)
Food is a universal language -- nothing brings people together more than sharing a meal.
Team Building brings your employees together by encouraging "Face-to-Face" interaction. Chef JoAnna draws on her background in Human Resources to develop food-related activities that help people grow and share with each other in a different setting, giving everyone a chance to collaborate, cooperate and connect in an off-beat and fun experience.
"Designing Desserts - Team Building"
As goal oriented team-building exercises, our corporate events are designed to create a bonding type atmosphere. This option encourages cooperation, instead of a format that fosters competition.
This Team Building session can be set up in your own office, whether we use a kitchen, common space or the boardroom.
Off-site venues are available, upon request. You may also choose to host lunch at the venue, too!
The session typically takes around 3 hours (shortened to 2 if needed), including two hands-on activities. During this time we take photographs which we will post online after the event, for your team to view and enjoy. We're building memories as we strengthen our team bonds!
We are flexible, depending on the space; best suited to groups between 8 and 30 participants.
Get your estimate & FREE planning tools!"Iron Chef" Style Contest
Best for blending groups of people who don't usually work together.
It's natural for people to want to remain in their own comfort zone, but when everyone's chopping veggies, stirring sauces, and garnishing desserts, you're going to interact on a very intimate level with those on your team.
Chef JoAnna takes pride in delivering a fun, dynamic, and mouth-watering event every time. Clients respond with raves about their experience!
The session typically takes around 4 hours from start to finish. Depending on the skill level of your participants, have your team make the entire meal, or just a single course such as the appetizer or the dessert. (Chef JoAnna will provide the additional courses; catering fees will apply).
We can be flexible, depending on the space; best suited to groups between 8 and 16 participants.
Request an estimate & FREE planning tools!Be SENSEational!
The Flagship Team Building Event, designed by Chef JoAnna.
Ignite creativity with mouth-watering smells and delicious flavors!
Do you have a team of writers or other creative people who need something new and interesting to motivate them? Perhaps you have a group of scientists, or people you want to think like scientists?
Everyone has fun while tasting new & interesting foods! This guided tasting is much more than a plate of Hors d'Oeuvres and a cocktail! Teams of pairs take turns to figure out what they're eating, using all their senses while sharpening their communication skills,and understanding how suggestion and predisposition alters perception. Teams get switched up and rotated "speed dating" style, so everyone gets to sit with new teammates for each part of the presentation.
Participants get to enjoy the nuances of flavors they haven't considered before. They'll exercise their descriptive vocabulary & listening skills while giving their tastebuds a workout.
This session is short and sweet, and can be completed with only two hours of active staff participation.
Can be done on-site in your office space. Off-site venues are available, upon request. You might choose to host lunch at the venue, too!
We can be flexible, depending on the space; best suited to groups between 8 and 25 participants.
Call for an estimate & FREE planning tools!Health & Nutrition Seminars
The focus on "Fast-Easy-Healthy" cooking skills teaches good eating habits, plus a whole lot more.
Good health starts with eating well. If your employees aren't making good food choices, it's affecting their health and their performance.
Learning how to cook will enhance their out-of-office lifestyle too. Employees will learn how to save money by cooking for themselves, and save time by doing weekly meal-prep, reducing the time spent cooking and cleaning to a minimum.
Biggest Loser Contest
Jump start your Biggest Loser Contest with a healthy cooking class! Your group will learn fundamental cooking skills that they never had, or they forgot as they fell out of the habit of cooking. It's a fact that many Americans do not have the basic ability to cook a meal at home and very little understanding of how much fat and salt is in restaurant food.Almost any kind of cooking you can produce in a kitchen is healthier than fast food. If employees believe cooking for themselves is a chore, they won't do it! Chef JoAnna can flatten out the learning curve in the kitchen.
- This presentation covers:
- How to get into better eating habits
- How to be prepared for "eating emergencies"
- How to
AND a detailed plan on how to implement a "Biggest Loser" contest at your workplace!
Number of participants? ...How many people fit in your largest presentation space! (If sampling is requested, maximum of 30 participants.)
Heart Healthy Menu Planning
Our "Heart Healthy Menu Planning" classes empower employees with the skills, knowledge, and confidence to prepare healthy and affordable meals. These cooking classes teach participants how to select nutritious, low-cost ingredients and prepare delicious, budget friendly meals for themselves and their families.This isn't about dieting, it's about making small, consistent choices to change eating habits. If you opt for a hands-on session, each class participants will taste the food that the teams have prepared, and take home the recipes to practice at home.
- This presentation covers:
- How to shop for groceries
- How to adjust favorite family recipes for heart-health
- How to cook, store & serve healthy meals
AND weekly menu worksheet to help strategically plan meals without wasting food!
Number of participants? ...How many people fit in your largest presentation space! (If sampling is requested, maximum of 30 participants.)
Meal Prep Class
One afternoon in the kitchen will save you a week's worth of agonizing over what to eat! This is an interactive session that can take place in your office. It's like a "demo" cooking class, but NO cooking is done onsite. Chef JoAnna explains and demonstrates key techniques for getting food on the table (whether at home or at work) quickly and efficiently.Participants will learn how to spend a little time, one or two days per week making several meals for the upcoming week. These aren't "leftovers", these are planned, make-ahead meals. Chef JoAnna shows you tricks on how to make food last a little longer, and to have it be delicious until the last meal is finished.
- This presentation covers:
- How to shop for groceries
- How to meal-prep for a week
- How to cook, store & serve healthy meals
AND includes a custom cookbook with simple recipes ANYONE can make!
Number of participants? ...How many people fit in your largest presentation space! (If sampling is requested, maximum of 30 participants.)
Get in touch for estimate & FREE planning tools!Food & Wine Pairing
Celebrate the achievement of important company milestone with a wine tasting class!
Let's face it, your well-paid staff doesn't need another embroidered fleece jacket or insulated mug. When your team has earned a reward, give them a fun experience instead of another trinket.
Research indicates that "experiences" make us happier than "things"... Chef JoAnna's Food & Wine Pairing will not only be a wonderful evening shared by your team, it will give them practical knowledge of how to select and enjoy wine.
Read more here: Chef JoAnna's Food & Wine Pairing
Optimum size varies with the space; best suited to groups between 6 and 16 participants.
Off-site venues are available, upon request. You may opt to host a meal at the venue, after the tasting.
Request an estimate & FREE planning tools!No matter which format you choose, all lessons cover:
- Proper cooking techniques
- Plating and presentation techniques
- Planning, timing and service
- Safety & sanitation instruction
- Nutrition and health information
Of course, every participant will receive recipes for everything taught during the presentation. If you make something spontaneously, Chef JoAnna will prepare a document and send it via e-mail after the sesson.
Design a custom Team Building Cooking Lesson event!
- Because you're working with a professional chef, everyone can be accommodated. If you have vegetarians, vegans, folks who keep kosher, or folks who require gluten-free or allergen-free food, it's fine. All events can be adjusted so that everyone can participate.
- Pre-arrange your teams so that people who need to work together can do so, or choose to have randomized team assignments.
- Private instruction, in your own office, is less intimidating than going to a "professional" training kitchen.
- Because the event takes place in your office, Chef JoAnna doesn't have any overhead costs to pass along. Not to mention, you save the expense of compensating employee travel time!
- Off-site venues are available, upon request. Most will allow you to host lunch at the venue, too!
- Chef JoAnna has no retail store affiliation, so you won't listen to any sales pitch for expensive kitchen equipment.
When you've decided on a food-related team building activity, Chef JoAnna is the best choice. She has a passion for the culinary arts that shows through with every event. A natural teacher, she will explain, clarify, and explain again until everyone understands and is comfortable.
Let us send an estimate & FREE planning tools!How can I prepare for a Team Building event?
Once you've booked a event Chef JoAnna will send a questionnaire to help define your goals, so that she can help you reach them. You may want to gather info from your participants ahead of the event, as well. Just choose a date, and reserve a space (conference room, kitchen, lunch area, etc.) for the entire day, to allow for set up and clean up. Decide if you want to bring in lunch or refreshments, and make sure you allot additional time for service.
How long do Team Building lessons last?
You should allow at between 2 to 4 hours for any of these sessions. Chef JoAnna will arrive an hour early to set up, and will stay until the clean up is complete.
What does a Team Building session cost?
Chef JoAnna doesn't have a huge staff and the expenses of overhead, so her seminars are more affordable than her competitors. Costs vary depending on what you want to do and how many people will be attending the lesson.
Fees always include:
- Chef's time, including the time spent preparing the lesson and shopping for groceries*
- Personalized instruction, with detailed explanations before the activity and coaching throughout the event.
- Use of specialized tools such as a Crème Brûlée torch, pasta machine, mandoline or other equipment
- Recipe booklets, including Safety & Sanitation guidelines and related materials, customized for your group.
- Guided debriefing with a question & answer session.
- If you choose, each participant will receive an apron and a chef's toque, which is theirs to keep ($6/person)
- Participants will receive a certificate customized to the event, with awards and prizes as applicable ($30+/event for prizes).
- ...and of course, Chef JoAnna will handle all the clean up.
Note: Cost of groceries may not be included in the fee. Receipts will be presented for reimbursement on the date of the lesson.
Send this link to your department manager or activities director:
www.SENSEationalTeamBuilding.com
or click here to print a PDF flyer.
