3 Reasons Why Iron Chef–Style Cooking Competitions Are So Popular for Team Building Activities

Finding the best team building activities is exhausting. Nothing can seemingly please everyone and it’s so much work to plan for a group! Team Building should improve employee rapport and engagement, which has the ability to make a notable impact on how well workers perform while on the job. Gallup’s State of the American Workplace Report found that highly engaged teams see a 41% reduction in absenteeism and a 17% boost in productivity.

There are obvious benefits to stepping outside of the office as a group to get to know each other on a peer level. Effective Team Building activities need to be flexible, diverse, and, ideally, fun, which limits options. That said, one Team Building activity that’s started to grow in popularity is the iron chef-style cooking competition. In this post, we’re going to present three reasons why these cooking competitions are so popular as a Team Building activity!

Learn a new recipe!

How Do Standard Cooking Classes and Cooking Competitions Work?

First off, let’s set a baseline for what cooking classes look like. At Sidewalk Food Tours, we host both cooking classes and cooking competitions in cities across the United States, including New York City, San Francisco, Chicago, and more. Our standard cooking competition offering is an in-person or virtual cooking class. These consist of professional chefs providing flexible cuisine options for your teams to prepare under guidance.

In addition to accommodation for any dietary restrictions, some of our kitchen venues will either serve alcohol or be BYOB, have options for appetizers and desserts, and provide flexible pricing depending on the size of your teams.

We also offer a standard cooking competition as an option. During this time, participants are split into teams that compete to make the perfect dish in the cuisine of their choosing. They get to collaborate as a team to help each other chef up a scrumptious dish, which will be judged by the professional chef we provide based on presentation, taste, and type.

Overall, these cooking classes are a fun way for everyone to collaborate on creating delicious dishes where everyone (and their taste buds) win by the end.

It’s on!

How are Iron Chef-Style Cooking Competitions Different?

Iron Chef-style cooking competitions differ from standard cooking competitions because they are more intense. Rather than allowing teams to pick the cuisine they want to make in advance, teams instead cede control to us.

Just like the sort of cooking competition you might see on network television, we provide a pantry full of ingredients, challenging your team to decide on the spot what dish they want to prepare. 

Then, once you’ve cooked up a meal, your team’s cuisine will be judged by our professional chef. This part especially is just like a TV cooking competition, with the winning team receiving a bonus tasting.

Get cookin’!

The Reasons Why Iron Chef-style Cooking Competitions Are So Popular

1. Intensity

The first reason why Iron Chef-style cooking competitions are so popular is because of the added intensity. Team members get their brains buzzing the moment they lay eyes on the selection of ingredients they’ve been offered, knowing they have limited time to figure out the best tasting meal they can prepare together. That added complexity adds to a layer of fun for team members as they work to defeat the competition.

2. Collaboration

Who has the best casserole? Who can cook the best pasta? As team split up to work with the ingredients offered, they have to get to understand each other’s strengths and figure out how they can combine different cooking skills to create the best tasting dish possible. Not only does this foster greater communication and collaboration, but it also has the added benefit of helping team members stealthily get to know each other. Much more effective than icebreakers and stuffy meeting rooms.

3. Rewards

We made sure to include a little extra spice in these competitions by ensuring that the winning team would get a reward. This bonus tasting gives team members something to strive for in the sense of accomplishment if they win. That said, the team that doesn’t triumph doesn’t necessarily feel punished, either. Either way, all teams get to enjoy the delicious “fruits” of their labor, ensuring that the overall experience is something everyone can enjoy and look upon fondly, win or lose.

Cooking Classes are fan favs!

Join us in the Kitchen

Iron Chef-style cooking competitions are a fun spin on the already-popular concept of cooking as a teambuilding activity. If you are looking to establish a greater level of rapport with your friends, coworkers, or employees, you can’t go wrong with trying out this activity.

Check if Sidewalk Food Tours offers Iron Chef-style cooking competitions in your city!