MasterChef heats up interest in corporate team cooking events
MasterChef is generating interest in the workplace, with the concept being adapted to corporate team building events.
Tony Legg Chef Trainer
Tony Legg of SEA Legg’s Corporate Team Building which conducts team cooking in Sydney and Melbourne (he launched team building cooking classes for the corporate market in Australia nine years ago), says the successful television show had generated interest from companies and organisations which see the show as the new novel platform for employee engagement and training.
He said the show had prompted some corporations to re-invest in workplace training, a business development channel cut by management when the financial crisis arrived.
Team cooking and requests for MasterChef-style team cooking activities have more than doubled over the last two months which Mr Legg attributes directly to the massive success of the tv show.
SEA Leggs Corporate Team Building has even staged back-to-back cooking events in recent weeks..
“While the tv show is based on competition, our structured and accountable programs centre on creating commercial quality food, food you’d pay money for, produced through teamwork … and in real time,” he said.
“Competition, or more importantly, winners and losers, is not healthy when you’re trying to foster a workplace shared team spirit and a sense of achievement, throughout the team.
“However, we have successfully facilitated MasterChef-style events, but we will always request further information on the background of the team and ask why this is the preferred style,” he said.
Mr Legg, a qualified chef and teacher, said his SEA Leggs team building business, which also includes corporate team sailing on Port Phillip Bay and Sydney Harbour, was designed to work with and parallel the workplace.
Last Friday, he managed a MasterChef-styled event for 75 participants. There were three judges, ala MasterChef, with a sample of each of the menu items prepared and plated for presentation to the judges. On this occasion, there were seven presentation plates, the judges scoring the items out of 10. The judges also found some inside ‘gossip’ from each of the teams which added humour, personality and involvement between the teams.
