Many companies are waking up to the importance of looking after staff and making sure they work cohesively and without friction. It is becoming increasingly accepted by many business leaders that it is teams that work together who triumph over individually skilled staff working alone.

The number of companies choosing to use team building days has risen by 23% in the last 5 years, and the range of activities open to businesses has more than doubled. You can now choose to do team building activities under water, or even be stranded on an island with only your colleagues for help. One type of team building day that has proved very popular is corporate cookery days. These usually involve 2 or more teams competing against each other to produce restaurant-standard food, under the pressure of a time limit and usually an overzealous head chef breathing down your neck.

The popularity of these cookery days has certainly got a lot to do with Chef Gordon Ramsey’s increasing popularity and his no-nonsense kitchen management approach. In fact many of these team building cookery days use the theme of a Gordon Ramsey style kitchen. Some might consider this a little intimidating, although it really is just a bit of fun and nothing gets taken too seriously when someone gets told off for burning the omelette for example

These fun, tongue in cheek style team building days are even starting to replace corporate hospitality events. People seem to be moving away from stuffy office get-togethers or the same boring trip to a football match where everyone pretends to be enjoying themselves. Clients and VIPs want to get stuck in these days and actually take an active role in their own entertainment. Its not that hard to see why either, events such as corporate cooking can be very funny and are a great way to get everyone working together and communicating?

Tags: cookery, cooking, Events, team building