The Google Kitchen War
How often do you get to fight a war with your colleagues which is super fun?! Well, not that often I’m guessing. At The Culinary Lounge we have kitchen wars which are a unique way of bonding with your team while cooking yourselves a scrumptious meal. This is the time everyone dons their masterchef aprons and gets cooking.
We had a team of 30 from Google visit us, all set to wage war on each other and emerge as champions of the kitchen. But before we entered the battle ground, it was time for some TLC with our carefully curated hi-tea spread. The spread we put out as a part of our premium Lounge series takes into consideration different palate preferences and sensibilities. With tummies satiated, it was time to get the fun started.
In the kitchen war, the teams are given 90 minutes in which to complete their cook-off. They are each handed over recipes of the chosen dishes and the professional chef team only assists the teams but don’t hand-hold them through each step of the recipes. At the end of the 90 minutes, the teams would each be judged on three parameters; taste, presentation and innovation. The nervousness and inhibitions amongst the teams were palpable but all that flew out of the window as the timer went off!
The chosen cuisine for the cook-off was Italian and the menu for the evening included Calzones, Pasta in Alfredo Sauce, Corn Discs and Tiramisu. We started off on a sweet note with the tiramisu. The recipe followed by the teams were the same but each looked different, since the teams took their innovation scoring rather seriously. We had tiramisus fashioning the Google logo while some were in the shape of a tower. These guys were clearly letting all their creative juices flow and were beginning to see how much fun this activity was going to be.
Next came the calzones and this is when creativity within the teams reached its peak. Everyone was on a masterchef mode and calzones of various shapes and sizes were being popped into the oven to bake. With that done, the confidence was beginning to grow and time was fast running out to get the other two dishes completed. The designated team choppers chopped away as we moved on to make the corn discs. Time ticked on as the teams became more and more confident in how they wanted to present their dishes. We could see some team members taking charge and delegating tasks to the other members as everyone was now scrambling to get their dishes ready and plated on time. In spite of the recipe sheets, people started thinking out of the box and coming up with their own variations to the recipes, or adding certain elements which could perhaps give them an added edge with the judges.
As time was coming to an end, the frenzy in the kitchen grew and as the buzzer went off, there were fist bumps and high-fives all around. The sense of accomplishment was different to the ones they usually feel on the successful completion of a project. There was so much excitement around the studio as our professional chef, Sangeeta Kante made her way around the stations tasting the dishes and awarding the marks.
Before leaving, a personalised hamper was waiting for everyone which had been carefully and aesthetically put together by The Culinary Lounge team. The kitchen war did have a clear winner that night, but everyone went home happy having had one of the best team outings ever!
Ofcourse, it goes without saying, we, as a team were chuffed at having pulled off yet another fun and successful evening for our guests.
