Virtual Cooking Classes for Groups & Team Building

If you’re looking for a cooking class that will please everyone’s palate, it’s hard to go wrong with a simple New York pretzel. During the class, the host will teach everyone how to properly mix and roll the dough before creating that classic pretzel shape we all know and love. While waiting for the pretzels to bake, the group will create sweet and savory toppings for their pretzels and, at the end, everyone will get to enjoy their creations in a laid-back atmosphere. Aside from butter and mixing bowls, all of the required supplies will be sent to each person before your event. These include cornmeal, yeast, sugar, and coarse salt. Everyone will also receive the perfect amount of flour or a gluten free substitute, so even those with dietary restrictions can participate and enjoy themselves.

If your team wants an alternative to pretzels, consider a bagel making workshop. This is another easy and delicious foodstuff that you can learn how to make in your own homes and it is an incredibly versatile kind of roll. You can boil, fry or bake them and the number of different toppings and fixings for a bagel is near limitless, so no matter how you want to prepare your bagels, you can make it a reality. EVeryone who joins the event will have a box of supplies shipped directly to their homes, meaning that they will have all the ingredients they need to make their first bagels and while this event focuses on sesame seed bagels, no one will mind if you add a bit of personal flair to your creations. With the help of an experienced chef, everyone on your team will leave the workshop with a box of bagels to enjoy.

Add a bit more flair to your pretzels in this everything spice pretzel workshop. Everyone who participates will receive a kit containing all of the ingredients they need to make their own pretzels and everything they need to craft the perfect spice to adorn their pretzels. Participants will get hands-on instruction in the fine art of pretzel baking, including everything from hand kneading the dough to shaping it into the perfectly recognizable pretzel shape to baking the pretzel to exactly the right level of crispness that you are looking for. The spice blend comes pre-made, so you’ll be able to enjoy a fresh pretzel as soon as you are done with the bake (and we won’t tell anyone if you’d rather enjoy a naked pretzel). This course is a great alternative to a New York style pretzel baking class if you are looking for a slightly different flavor.

Another popular pasta option is a fluffy potato gnocchi and you and your team can learn how to make it at home in this virtual workshop. Everyone will get a kit containing all of the ingredients they need to make the gnocchi and the parmesan-reggiano topping, meaning everyone will be able to cook up their own batch in real-time. An expert chef will guide everyone through the step-by-step process of preparing the potatoes and preparing the ingredients to create a light and fluffy finished product that is sure to be a hit with everyone who comes to the workshop.

If you’re looking for a cooking experience that goes beyond the typical pizza or pasta course, a dumpling making class is worth checking out. This program does not include the cost of materials, but a full list of ingredients and supplies can be found in the registration details. In this workshop, your group will learn the basics of two different dumpling preparations–pork and celery, and vegetable mushroom. The dough has only two ingredients, so once the host has quickly shown you how to make it, you’ll move onto making the fillings and shaping your dough. You’ll also learn three different methods of cooking these dumplings: steaming, frying, and boiling. After making a simple soy-vinegar dipping sauce, you’ll be ready to sit back and enjoy your delicious dumplings. You might even have enough left over to freeze and share with others!

Tapas, a meal of shared small plates which originated in Spanish cuisine has become very popular in recent years. Combining the pleasures of a tasting menu and a spread of finger foods, tapas has become a must try for anyone interested in experiencing new culinary styles. In this program everyone will get a list of ingredients to bring together and an expert chef will guide students through the process of preparing Garlic Shrimp, Patatas Bravas, Roasted Cauliflower and a Paprika Aioli (to enjoy with Cauliflower and the Patatas). This kind of workshop is a great alternative to other cooking classes by virtue of the nature of tapas, since you want to be making a little bit of a lot of different things (as opposed to preparing an entire meal's worth of something like pizza or pasta).

Making your own Italian cheeses at home is easier than you think! In this two-hour workshop, students will roll up their sleeves and learn the ins and outs of making four types of cheese: burrata, mascarpone, mozzarella, and ricotta. A cheese making kit will be sent to each participant prior to your event that includes all of the supplies you’ll need to participate, including a cheese thermometer, cheese cloth, vegetable rennet, and citric acid. All you need to bring is milk! At the end of the class, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by how simple it is to make creamy cheese in your own kitchen.

If your group enjoys a tangy cocktail while they work, this is definitely the class for you. This two-hour workshop starts with the creation of delicious, flaky empanadas. Since the ingredients are not included for this course, each participant can choose their own flour and filling from a protein of their choice (veggie protein included, so vegetarians are encouraged to attend), making this a more customizable cooking class than most. After preparing the buttery crust and fillings, students will roll out their dough and fill their empanadas. While they bake, the course moves onto mixing the perfect margarita. For the last portion of class, everyone can chat, nibble, and sip as they enjoy relaxing with their teammates.

Take a virtual trip south of the border and learn how to make the world’s most popular cocktail, the margarita. The simple base of Tequila, Orange Liqueur (Cointreau or Triple Sec) and simple or agave syrup (which is incredibly easy to make) means that margaritas are very easy to learn to make while still being complex enough to let would-be mixologists create new and unique margaritas as they become more comfortable with their craft. This can include everything from adding more flavorful syrups (strawberry margaritas are popular and easy to make), working with different liqueurs or more complex tequilas or adding garnishes and other additional ingredients. This course will also teach participants how to make fresh guacamole to accompany the salty chips that are commonly associated with margaritas.

Apple pie is so ubiquitous that it has become an almost stereotypical aspect of American cuisine and, therefore, there are few better dessert options if you are looking for a group cooking class. In this program, an experienced chef will guide all of your team members through the step-by-step process of making an apple pie from scratch (using ingredients mailed directly to their home). Participants will make their own pie crust (so they won’t ever have to use a cheap store bought crust again) and they will make the filling and icing, completing the pie and watching it bake. If you choose, while the pie is baking, your host can demonstrate how to make an apple martini for participants to enjoy alongside their pie. If you choose to enjoy the appletini, you can have the ingredients for the drink included with the apple pie kit that is sent directly to your team members.

Sometimes, you want to have a nice dessert treat without the hassle of actually cooking up a dessert. If that sounds like something you want for your team members, you might consider signing up for a cookie decorating event. This workshop will give your team members the chance to show off their creative sides to their colleagues as they decorate a dozen sugar cookies using icing and various toppings that they have around the home. With the help of an experienced host, everyone will be able to create their own visual masterpieces (and play some fun decorating games along the way) and at the end of the event, they’ll be able to share their creations with colleagues and then enjoy the fruits of their labor (by which, we mean, eating cookies).

How often have you found yourself asking, “I wish my breakfast could also be a dessert?” If so (and you think that you aren’t the only person on your team to ask that question), consider signing your team up for a virtual cinnamon roll workshop. In this workshop, everyone will have the ingredients they need to make perfect, fluffy, melty cinnamon rolls in their own homes. Cinnamon rolls can be intimidating for novices, but in this program an expert chef will give you all the guidance and step-by-step instructions even the most timid bakers need to make perfect cinnamon rolls every time. This course is a great way to give your team members a fun experience in the kitchen while also teaching them a recipe that they can replicate again and again.

While we often think of them as fall staples, caramel apples can be enjoyed year round and, with the help of this virtual workshop you and your team can learn how to make caramel apples in your home kitchens. Participants will receive all of the ingredients they need to make delicious corn syrup caramel in their homes and they’ll get the supplies they need to assemble and dip the apples into their rich, flowing caramel. This course also covers the process of freezing and serving the apples as well as how to best adorn them with toppings and fixings to make the treats even more desirable.

Bring a taste of southern comfort to your team members' kitchens in this rhubarb crisp and lemonade making course. Everyone who participates will get a kit of ingredients shipped directly to their homes containing all of the dry ingredients they need (and a gift card for the others) to make a strawberry rhubarb crisp and a tart pitcher of lemonade. In this course, an experienced chef will teach students everything they need to know about making streusel, preparing and adding the filling and baking the crisp to perfection. Everyone who participates will be able to customize their own dessert to include various nuts, berries and other toppings and fillings and the recipe is versatile enough to include everything from strawberries and rhubarb to a host of other fillings. As you are preparing your crisp, you’ll learn how to make traditional, homemade lemonade to your desired level of sweetness, which is sure to be a hit over the hot summer months.

Few street foods invoke the feeling of summer quite like the churro. This traditional Spanish treat has become associated with street fairs, theme parks and block parties across the country and you and your team can learn how to make these delicious handheld treats in your own kitchen. Participants will receive a kit containing the ingredients they need to make several different kinds of churros and an experienced chef will guide everyone step-by-step through the process of frying these doughy treats in their own home. Everyone will learn how to make traditional cinnamon sugar churros and how to make chocolate dipping sauces to add even more flavor to their creations. By the end of the class, everyone will have a few dozen churros to enjoy and share with guests, family and friends.

This beginner-friendly workshop guides participants through the process of making two simple yet delicious ice cream flavors—a ginger ice cream and a traditional sweet cream, accented with cookie crumbles from the famous Milk Bar. The sweet cream flavor makes a great base for adding additional toppings and mixtures, and it’s easy to recreate at home whenever you get a craving! Throughout the session, the host will also share their favorite tips and tricks to the perfect homemade ice cream, and keep everyone laughing with some interesting ice cream trivia. Students must supply their own ice, sugar, and milk or cream. All other ingredients are sent to students before the event, including ginger syrup, crystallized ginger, and cookies.

If you are looking for an event that can serve as a reward for your team members and you want to cut out the part where they actually have to cook something, signing up for a guided wine and cheese tasting is a good place to start. This virtual event will see your team members learning about the complex history and science of wine and cheese pairings from an experienced host who has the knowledge of a sommelier and a cheesemonger. Everyone will get a package of wine and cheese shipped directly to their homes so that they may enjoy the tasting event alongside their team members. There are also variants of this event that are purely wine or cheese focused, so you can give your team members more of the things that they will enjoy.

Bring happy hour to your team members’ homes in a virtual group mixology course. In this team building event, everyone will receive a package containing all of the drinkware, syrups and mixers they need to create a trio of delicious cocktails in the comfort of their own homes. There are a number of different menus available, including spirit-focused classes (learn three run cocktails), classic cocktails, modern favorites, seasonal or holiday cocktails and original creations. Participants will also receive a gift card to purchase the spirits that they need or to purchase the spirits that they would prefer to use as substitutes. Non-alcoholic substitutions are also available to let participants who don’t drink participate and there are mocktail making classes available as well.

Almost everyone can agree that chocolate is an excellent treat, but how many people really have a firm grasp on different kinds of chocolate beyond milk and maybe dark? Give your team members a chance to learn more about the history and science of chocolate while also giving them a chance to sample various chocolates that have been shipped directly to their homes. An experienced chocolate expert leads the tasting event and will provide participants with information on the different chocolates and lessons in developing and articulating tasting notes. This event is a great way to reward a team for a job well done and it is sure to be a hit among your attendees.

Another fun way to recreate the feeling of drinking with coworkers after a long day is by signing up for a beer tasting event. In this group event, everyone will have a flight of various Belgian beers shipped directly to their homes and they will get to sample these beers as an experienced host guides them through lessons on the process by which beer is brewed and the history of Belgium's centuries old brewing traditions. Everyone will get a full six pack from a curated selection of Belgian breweries and these will cover the gamut of different styles of beer, both light and dark. This event is a great way to reward team members for a job well done and it is a good way to introduce everyone to more complex and flavorful beers then they might otherwise be used to.

Bubble tea, a trendy drink coming out of Taiwan, has become incredibly popular as boba shops have begun to pop up all around the country. In this virtual workshop, your team members can learn how to make their own tea and tapioca pearls as they learn the history of the beverage and the tea making traditions that it emerges from. Everyone will receive a kit containing the ingredients they need to make their own boba tea and a collection of additional tea bags and ingredients to start experimenting with the recipe on their own. There will be two demonstrations as the tapioca is cooking and then everyone will make their own cup of Match Brown Sugar bubble tea. This course is a great way to introduce team members to a new kind of tea or to give those who are already on the boba train a chance to learn how to make their own tea.

Give your team members an opportunity to enjoy the tastes of India in this virtual chai tea making workshop. Chai (which literally translates to tea) is one of the most popular types of tea in the world and in this course, your team members will receive guided instruction on the step-by-step process of brewing this delicious drink at home. An experienced home chef will guide your team members as they brew their tea and add flavorings to fit their specific tastes. Once the class is done, everyone will get to enjoy their tea and some traditional Indian sugar cookies.

If you like the idea of hosting a cookie decorating event (and who wouldn’t, given that it involves getting cookies and having a sociable time with your team members) but you want it to be a bit more topical, you can enroll in a holiday event, like the virtual Halloween cookie decorating event. Just like the regular event, everyone will receive a package containing sugar cookies and icing, but these cookies (and the choice of colors) will be themed around the spookiest time of the year. Everyone will get to create their own themed decorated cookies and will get to show-off their horrifying (or campy) creations at the end of the event.

Once fall has fully set in, it becomes time to start thinking about what you are going to bring to the many, many family gatherings that happen around this time of year. A staple of these meals is pumpkin pie and you can help your team members out by signing them up for a cooking class that will teach them how to make real pumpkin pie from the comfort of their own kitchen. This virtual course will see your team members guided by an expert chef step-by-step from the rolling of the crust to the final baking process. Everyone will see how easy it is to bake a pumpkin pie and to make the process even more painless, all of the ingredients that a home chef needs will be shipped directly to their homes, so they won’t even have to go through the trouble of sourcing the spices, doughs and gourds.

Cookie decorating is also a popular pastime during the Christmas season (as it is for basically any holiday where one might enjoy cookies), so if you want to extend the decorating fun to the end of the year, you can sign up for a Christmas cookie workshop. This is another opportunity for everyone in your office to get a chance to express themselves creatively through the medium of icing and sugar, this time with a Christmas theme. Decorate sugar cookie snowmen, snowflakes and presents and then enjoy sharing the cookies virtually with your colleagues (so they can see your artistic work) and with those close to you (who can also enjoy the sugar cookies).

The absolute beauty of a cookie decorating event is that it is such an easy and versatile event that you can hold one for pretty much everything. If you are working with a large group of team members who celebrate Hanukkah, rather than another end-of-year Holiday, you can host a cookie decorating event that focuses on the iconography and traditions of this Jewish holiday. Pre-cut sugar cookies will be sent to the residences of all your attendees and they will have a chance to make their own frosting covered, edible menorahs and dreidels, alongside a collection of other shapes. As with all cookie decorating events, you’ll be able to show off your creations to your team members at the end of the event and then enjoy the sugar cookies with family and friends.

By this point, you get the idea. Turkeys, pumpkins, pilgrim hats and a host of other sugar cookie shapes that you and your team will get to decorate and share, sent directly to your team members' homes. Ran by a professional host who will keep the event lively and fun, teaching decorating techniques and getting everyone in the seasonal spirit. What more could you want this Thanksgiving?

Once Christmas rolls around, you may start to consider taking your cookie-related decorating classes up a notch. If this sounds like something you want for your team, you can consider enrolling in a virtual gingerbread house party. Everyone will get a kit shipped directly to their homes, which includes an easy to assemble gingerbread house, all of the icing and treats you’ll need to decorate it and some suggestions for things you can use to take your house to the next level. The event is hosted by a professional emcee who will keep everyone in the highest of spirits as they listen to holiday music and play holiday themed games as everyone decorates their house in preparation for the finale of the event where everyone shares their creations. This is a very festive way to spend the end of the year and a wonderful holiday treat for everyone on your team.

Hands-on creative activities like flavoring a pasta dough or mixing a margarita can provide a much-needed break from the daily stresses and responsibilities we all encounter at the office. Allowing team members to cook together lets them unwind and get to know each other in a relaxed setting with a more level playing field. Activities that reduce stress are also vital to the morale of a company, since they can help reduce burnout and strengthen the bond between teammates. A cooking activity might also help some people discover a new interest or hidden talent, boosting their confidence and increasing their happiness in general.

Engaging in an activity that produces a delicious meal at the end is also great for increasing confidence. A virtual cooking workshop can serve as a simple but powerful reminder to people that they are capable of creating a delicious meal and learning new culinary skills in just a few hours. This sense of pride and satisfaction is likely to translate directly to the workplace, since these experiences can boost morale and lead to more motivated employees.

Virtual team building activities are exceptionally convenient and accessible, especially for those with a primarily remote workforce. By removing geographical barriers and allowing everyone to participate, you’re able to encourage greater participation since everyone feels that their time is valued and nobody is left out. Meeting over video conferencing platforms makes it easier for colleagues to bond and collaborate, providing increased flexibility to accommodate those with busy schedules or who live in different time zones.

Cooking is an excellent choice for a virtual team building activity for many reasons. Although the group members aren’t physically in the same location, actively participating in preparing the same meal fosters engagement and collaboration. People can share tips on how to be successful or commiserate if the dish doesn’t go according to plan. This can help create a sense of unity and teamwork, strengthening the bonds between teammates as they guide each other through the cooking process.

The cooking process also breeds creativity and innovation. Even though everyone is creating the same basic dish, everyone will add their own tweaks and touches to make it uniquely theirs. For example, some people may prefer a touch of red pepper flakes on their pizza because they love spicy food, while others may add an unconventional topping to their pie. Small things like this encourage conversation and curiosity about other people and allows colleagues to learn more about their coworkers in a more relaxed environment. This is also an excellent opportunity for people to share more about their family and cultural backgrounds as they share cooking techniques they learned from family members. Allowing people to cook from their own kitchen can add to the sense of familiarity, meaning folks are more likely to let their guards down and be themselves.

A virtual cooking workshop can also help people build confidence which can then be applied to their professional development. Working to create a meal that you’ve never prepared before requires patience and determination, and knowing that others might be struggling alongside you makes the process more fun and allows people to feel supported. Being proud of the tasty results of your culinary efforts enables you to feel more secure in your ability to try new things and be successful at them.

It’s important to take a few things into consideration before deciding which virtual cooking workshop is right for your group. Being mindful of other cultures is essential, so be sure to ask everyone about any dietary restrictions or religious guidelines around food preparation prior to booking your event. Being proactive about respecting other cultures will help create a more welcoming environment for all participants because everyone will feel that their identity is valued.

You’ll also want to think about the overall goal of your activity before deciding which one best suits your group. Every team building activity should have an element of fun, but consider how you want the event to impact the group in the long run. If you want them to bond through the laughter and ice breaking that comes with sharing a new experience, a workshop that focuses on a less common activity like making your own cheese or Japanese mochi ice cream from scratch. One of these workshops might be best for a team that doesn’t know each other very well or needs to improve their collaboration and communication skills. On the other hand, a more established team just looking to relax may prefer a simpler cooking activity, like making pretzels or pasta.

Budget is always an important consideration as well. Many of the workshops listed above ship all of the ingredients and supplies to the participants ahead of time, and these are understandably more expensive. If you’re looking to save some money, you can consider scheduling a class where materials are not provided. This will mean that each team member will have to purchase ingredients on their own, but if the members of your group are more experienced home cooks, they may have a lot of the required supplies on hand already. Coworkers who are already friends or live nearby could also participate together, reducing the need to buy extra tools and adding to the collaborative nature of the whole experience.

Many groups choose cooking as a team building activity because the process is collaborative and engaging in nature. While virtual events don’t allow for a lot of collaboration between coworkers, there is a high level of engagement and conversation to be had as everyone works to create their own dish. If you’re aiming for maximum engagement, you may want to try an event where everyone learns to cook something they’re unfamiliar with, like empanadas or dumplings. No matter which cooking activity you select, members of your team will be able to strengthen their bond and create lasting memories from anywhere in the world. You can also try a virtual team building game, like an escape room group event or white elephant gift exchange.