Tag corporate team building event

Parties That Cook Heats Up the Kitchen with Chef Michael Chiarello

0 comments By The Kitchen Whisperer Filed in Entertaining, News & Events Tagged with celebrity chef, Chef Michael Chiarello, cooking competition, corporate team building activity, corporate team building event, guest judge, kitchen challenge, Parties That Cook Event September 24th, 2011 @ 3:44 pm

Earlier this month, guests attended what they thought was our normal Kitchen Challenge event. Little did they know that they would be joined and later judged by none other than Chef Michael Chiarello! You may remember that we featured his book, Bottega, in a past cookbook club, but if not, get the scoop here!

Chef Chiarello skipped a big introduction and surprised the guests by simply sneaking in and wandering around the kitchen while the teams were cooking. Try holding your composure when you have such an accomplished chef-lebrity walking around!

After the cooking, teams elected a spokesperson to present their dishes to Chef Chiarello one at a time. The spokesperson from each team explained why their team should win while our guest judge took his time tasting each dish. Chef Chiarello then thoroughly described what he liked about each dish and what the teams could do differently next time. (One of the keys to great cooking is making sure certain flavors do not overpower others!)

From the Moroccan Bisteeya to the Mexican Chocolate Chipotle Cookies with Smokey Salted Caramel Centers, it was a great menu. Everyone gave a valiant effort, but ultimately, the winner was the Mini Arepas with Oaxaca Cheese and Jalapeno Marmalade team — by a margin of 1 point! At the end of the event Chef Chiarello stuck around and was nice enough to sign cookbooks and take photos with guests (and Rosie). I’m sure everyone at PTC wished they could have been a part of this event!

Which celebrity chef would YOU like to see at a Parties That Cook event? Would your team be able to keep their cool under the pressure from this guest judge? Let us know!

John Deere and ShareThis Get Creative with Parties That Cook’s Amazing Kitchen Race and Cupcake Wars

0 comments By The Kitchen Whisperer Filed in Entertaining, News & Events Tagged with amazing kitchen race, corporate team building, corporate team building activity, corporate team building event, cupcake wars, event recap, John Deere, ShareThis August 29th, 2011 @ 3:38 pm

At Parties That Cook we hate making anyone feel forgotten. That being said, I think it’s time we featured a couple of our newer Corporate Team Building Events…

On Thursday, August 18th, John Deere hosted their first cooking event with Parties That Cook – and boy was it exciting! Not only did they get to experience a heated cooking competition, but the company took their team building a step further by selecting our Amazing Kitchen Race! According to the John Deere host, Sarah N., “It seemed like something different and something that would really get everyone working as a team.”

Teams took to the streets of Chicago to compete in a GPS scavenger hunt, earning points (called cache) to redeem for advantages in the kitchen. They then returned to the Charlie Baggs kitchen to finish the evening with the usual Kitchen Challenge portion of the event.

We were so glad to hear that our FIRST Amazing Kitchen Race in Chicago went off without a hitch! Communication with our partners at Geoteaming definitely contributed to a smooth competition. PTC’s Chef Molly reported, “The client was raving about the entire event and loved everything – both cooking and geoteaming.” John Deere’s host, Sarah N., added that the best part was seeing “everyone get so into the cooking and really working as a team.” Success!

The very next day, ShareThis hosted a Cupcake Wars event at the Ferry Building in San Francisco. PTC Chef Linda shared that the guests all had a great time! Being a judge must have been tough, as she loved how great each of the final products tasted.

ShareThis host, Olivia T., loved seeing everyone work together as a team, and she was impressed by all the brainstorming ideas. This must have been a particularly creative group, as Chef Linda also noted how creative the cupcakes were! Chef Linda explained, “Interestingly, guests made their decorations from fresh produce – berries, citrus, etc. No one touched the coloring, jimmies or confetti!” Great to see everyone stepping out of the box!