‘Tis the Season for a Holiday Cook-Off
Valley Natural Foods management team and board of directors team-up to engage in a holiday cook-off together.
Host a Holiday Cook-off
Looking for a great party idea? How about a holiday cook-off! Gather up friends and family members and have some fun showing off your cooking skills together. You’re likely to get to know each other on a whole new level. Even those that are not experts in the kitchen can have some good foodie fun.
The Valley Natural Foods board of directors hosted a holiday gathering and put some Valley Natural Foods staff to work in a board member’s kitchen. We created two main dishes, appetizers and an array of healthy salads. It was similar to a mini Top Chef challenge.
The event involves a plethora of ingredients and wine of course.
Here’s what you do:
- Determine a food theme.
- Buy ingredients at the co-op. When your guests arrive have all of the fresh ingredients displayed on the table or counter.
- Pick teams.
- The host creates game cards with instructions for the cook-off in advance. The teams take turns drawing those cards that direct them to take steps like swap ingredients with the other team, pick one ingredient, put an ingredient back and so forth. You can be as creative as you desire with the instructions.
- Teams get to invent the tasty dishes. Cookbooks are fine to use for inspiration.
- Set a time limit. It’s fun to see what you come up with in an hour.
- Teams present the menu to the diners.
- Sit down to a fantastic meal.
- The newly created dishes are ready for the management team and board of directors’ dining experience.
If only the clean-up process was as equally inspiring. So, perhaps it’s time to create the next game.
