From boardroom into kitchen: MA’s cooking studio culinary program builds winning teams

Hints & tips given by MArio De ALwis (MD) 

'Team' tasting the success of their efforts 

Challenging your team to accept and adapt to change and build winning teams does not always mean awkward hours in a cramped room or clinging to a rope fearing for your life. 

Sri Lanka’s well-known spice brand, MA’s Food has re-imagined training and team building activities through deliciously fun culinary team building and corporate cooking programs. 

“Food is the universal language. Team building and cooking are powerfully similar and nothing brings people together better,” says Sarah de Alwis, Communications Manager, Ma’s Food and Editor, Muluthange Quarterly Food Magazine.

Promoting the benefits of team building culinary classes, MA’s programs are guided by people who love to cook, fostering camaraderie and friendly competition among employees whilst providing them with the opportunity to discover new facets and ways of working together in a fun, social atmosphere. 

The programs are designed to bridge the gaps between departments and office hierarchies, teach cooperation and collaboration, and offer plenty of fun. The end result is a sumptuous meal for everyone’s enjoyment, the fulfilment of a new and challenging task completed and a chance to evaluate the meal, the process and the learning that has taken place.

“Working together in the kitchen is a modern approach to building camaraderie and productivity. Teams learn to plan, organise and work together with a deadline to accomplish a fantastic and tasty result and sometimes you never know who the real creative cooks are,” Sarah noted.

MA’s Corporate Cooking Classes are held at its Cooking Studio in Colombo, a gleaming, stainless-steel kitchen with multiple workstations so a number of teams can compete against each other or work together based on the challenge. Here, teams work together to ‘beat the clock’ and prepare a meal for judging and eventual consumption.

Sarah went on to explain that specific corporate team building objectives can be easily woven into the program, which is customised for specific needs. Recently top managers and employees of Sampath Bank, one of Sri Lanka’s premier financial entities were invited to participate in the inaugural Team Building and Corporate Cooking Class.

The program agenda includes several phases such as ‘Get Ready’ where an introduction to the kitchen is followed by a team preparing a simple dish. The next ‘Go’ session requires teams to showcase their competitive strengths focusing on time management and teamwork with prepared dishes ranked by judges.

The final creative session has teams preparing a set of dishes without instructor guidance or recipes within a set time frame. Teams will taste each other’s dishes and a winner is selected.

The purpose of the program is to bring employees together in a non-traditional setting with outcomes envisioned; foster creativity, highlight the importance of time management, focus on team work, delegation, leadership, improve cooking skills and a sense of fun and adventure 

The MA’s Culinary Program is original, exciting and aimed to keep staff engaged will teams discussing the outcomes and considering how these can be used in different work situations

“Not everyone can climb a rope. Most people know how to do some kind of cooking, so it appeals to a lot of groups and creates a level playing field – and by the end of the program participants are so proud of themselves and have learnt useful skills to incorporate into their work practices giving a whole new meaning to bringing people together,” Sarah concluded.