Food-tasting events are the ultimate secret weapon for breaking down barriers in the workplace and sparking genuine connections. A favorite food can evoke a memory or aid a conversation, bringing together different cultures and uniting people on special days.
Despite all the changes over the past few years, one thing remains constant: our shared love of food. Eating together has advantages beyond stronger employee relationships, too. In fact, research has shown that employees who eat together are often more productive and engaged, with higher morale.
This article features our favorite food-tasting events, from friendly salsa showdowns to crafting artisanal chocolates. Are you ready to create the perfect recipe for team bonding?
Why Food-Tasting Events Are a TeamBonding Favorite
Food has always been the great equalizer in social relationships. For example, food-related activities for staff can dissolve hierarchies and departmental boundaries. They create an environment where everyone, from interns to executives, can participate equally in the joy of sharing or making food.
“My favorite winter team building activities are any of our culinary events,” says Event Facilitator Dane Robinson. “There’s something magical about coming together, mixing flavors, and crafting delicious masterpieces while enjoying each other’s company.”
The magic extends beyond the kitchen and into the workplace. Food-tasting events engage all five senses, providing experiences that your teams will remember for years to come. Food competition ideas for work can encourage collaboration and improve teams’ creative problem-solving, time management, resource allocation, and leadership skills—all while having fun together.
These food-tasting ideas create an atmosphere that encourages connections and friendly conversations. This works by providing low-stress environments where colleagues can collaborate and build trust through shared experiences.
In-Person Food-Tasting Events
Ready to liven up the office with one of these culinary experiences? It’s a perfect way to bring your team together, foster connections, engage employees, and increase collaboration, and your employees are sure to have a blast!
Here are some of our favorite in-person ideas for team lunches and competitions to get you started.
1. Salsa Showdown
Turn up the heat with our legendary salsa showdown, where teams combine creativity with culinary skills to win over the judges. Each group gets a prep station stocked with a pot, spoons, knives, cutting boards, aprons, markers, utensils, and fresh ingredients. They must work against the clock (and each other) to create the perfect salsa, then market it to the rest of the crowd.
2. Team Chili Cookoff
This fiery team building favorite combines creativity, resourcefulness, and skill. Each group starts with chili basics like meat and tomatoes. Then, team members have to barter and complete fun challenges to collect the ingredients that’ll really make their masterpiece shine. May the best chili win!
3. Food Truck Challenge
Want to rev up your team’s creativity? Encourage team members to bond and create with the Food Truck Challenge! They’ll go on a culinary adventure packed with positive energy, fun, and friendly competition, designing their dream food truck and preparing a winning dish.
4. Ultimate Pizza Challenge
Transform the world’s favorite food into your team’s foundation for growth with the Ultimate Pizza Challenge. Pizza is used in some of the best food ideas for work events, and it’s a perfect vehicle for culinary competition. It’s also one of our most popular activities! From communication and teamwork to leadership and confidence, this game serves up fresh skills and tasty pies with ease.
5. Wicked Good Chowda Cookoff
If you’re on the East Coast, the Wicked Good Chowda Cookoff could be the perfect culinary event for your team. It’s also great for anyone ready to channel their inner New Englander. Your team will divide into groups and learn to make this coastal classic, each working to whip up the most delectable version. It’s a hearty helping of teamwork with a side of friendly competition, and the results are nothing short of delicious.
6. Team Chocolatier
Get ready to indulge in our hands-on chocolate workshop! Your employees will work and play as a team as they craft show-stopping truffles using high-end ingredients. They’ll also get super luxurious fillings like coconut, framboise, and champagne cream. It’s a delightfully sweet culinary experience that’ll make success taste as good as it feels.
7. Just Desserts
Transform your workplace bonding event into a sweet adventure with our Just Desserts challenge. It’ll get your teams working together to whip up mouth-watering delicacies for a Grand Buffet showcase to be evaluated by the judges. While only one team will win the top spot, everyone gets to sample each creation and walk away with strengthened connections, new skills, and the satisfaction of creating a delicious dessert.
8. Ice Cream Challenge
Science meets sweetness in this innovative food-tasting event! Our expert facilitators guide your team through the chilly magic of liquid nitrogen ice cream making. Your groups will collaborate, innovate, and compete as they try to develop a winning product. Then, they’ll go from concept to creamy perfection in seconds for instant gratification.
9. The Great Appetizer Challenge
Get ready to relax and socialize with this exciting farm-to-table food-tasting event. In The Great Appetizer Challenge, your teams will create and enjoy a variety of mouth-watering appetizers using fresh local ingredients. This is a fun idea for team lunches that’ll produce delicious results while reinforcing healthy group dynamics.
10. Let Them Eat Cake
Let your team channel their inner Cake Boss with this 3D cake-sculpting showdown! Inspired by popular baking shows like Cupcake Wars, Let Them Eat Cake challenges teams to create and sculpt themed masterpieces that are as visually stunning as they are delicious. It’s where engineering and edible art meets team building, and it’s always a hit.
11. Team Cuisine
In the Team Cuisine food-tasting event, your teams will embark on a gourmet journey as they prepare a multi-course feast. Perfect for kicking off conferences or celebrating milestones, this challenge has groups prepare, enjoy, and celebrate a serious multi-course gourmet meal. Current options include Italian, Mexican, Spa Cuisine, and Tapas and Sangria.
By the way! TeamBonding is always happy to work with you to bring in even more choices. Let’s talk.
12. Murder Mystery Dinner
Want to add some extra fun to your next food-tasting event? Get ready for a thrilling culinary experience with our Murder Mystery Dinner. Our professional actors will weave an interactive tale of murder, mystery, and intrigue while your team enjoys a spectacular meal. It’s one of the best food-tasting games for adults who’d rather focus on solving a mystery over preparing a meal.
13. Dining in the Dark
With Dining in the Dark, your team will embark on a one-of-a-kind sensory adventure. It combines fine dining, inspiring music, and a series of fun tabletop team building challenges. The catch? Your team will wear blindfolds and use their remaining senses to take it all in—prepare to experience food and teamwork in a whole new way!
14. Pub & Grub Hunt
What happens when you mix the thrill of a scavenger hunt with the fun of a pub crawl? The Pub & Grub Hunt, of course! It’s a food-tasting event that’ll create long-lasting memories and friendships while helping everyone relax away from the office. Honestly, it’s hard to go wrong with exploration, problem-solving, and delicious food and drinks, so don’t be surprised if your team wants to do this again next year.
15. Team Mixology
A tasting event can involve cocktails and mocktails, right? Of course it can! The Team Mixology event is a recipe for top-shelf team building. It’s led by a world-class mixologist who will teach your team members professional tricks as they whip up signature cocktails and mocktails. We’ll also spice things up with a dash of friendly competition—a recipe for success that’s equal parts learning, competition, and celebration.
16. Winery Team Challenge
Ready to uncork your team’s creativity? The Winery Team Challenge is among our most sophisticated food-tasting events, encouraging creativity, cooperation, experimentation, and friendly competition in a whole new way. After your group enjoys red and white wine tastings, they blend their perfect Sangria to celebrate.
17. Cooking for a Cause
Combine team building with community bonding in this meaningful culinary experience. Cooking for a Cause is built around preparing and enjoying a meal with the rest of your team while helping your community in a meaningful way. Teams get to support a local food bank with donations, giving back while they work together.
Virtual Tasting Events
You didn’t think we forgot about virtual and hybrid teams, did you? This section features our favorite tasting party ideas for team members participating from home.
Several of the food-tasting ideas highlighted above can also work for virtual and hybrid teams, but the ones below are specifically designed to cater to home participants (pun intended).
18. Curated Online Chocolate Tasting Experience
They say chocolate makes everything better, so we put that to the test with this virtual tasting party idea. (Spoiler alert: It’s a hit!)
We’ll send world-class chocolates to your team members’ doorsteps and host a high-end, bean-to-bar chocolate tasting over Zoom. Two of the country’s most experienced and entertaining chocolate experts will lead the tasting. These experts will guide your team through exciting combinations—think olive oil and dark chocolate; lemon and basil; and cinnamon and blueberry—for a decadent bonding experience.
19. Virtual Group Wine Tasting
Some of the most popular food-tasting games for adults involve a bit of alcohol, and this interactive wine-tasting experience adds a splash of sophistication to the experience. Guided by an expert winemaker, your team will experiment with a lineup of Chardonnay, Rosé, Barbera, Syrah, and Wanderlust red blend, all sent directly to their doorsteps. Then, they’ll combine them to make their own one-of-a-kind blends!
20. Around the Virtual Campfire
For this event, we’re bringing the campfire to you! As the weather gets chillier, there’s no better way to make warm memories with your friends and co-workers than hot chocolate. Your team will enjoy some hot cocoa and s’mores as they kick up their feet next to the virtual fire for a relaxing tasting experience.
21. Chocolate Truffle Making Experience
Take your chocolate obsession to the next level with help from the pros with the Virtual Chocolate Truffle Making Experience. It’s a 90-minute class that’ll have your team melt, measure, mix, chill, and roll their own truffles using fair-trade and local ingredients. Our award-winning chocolatier will expertly guide them through every step so your team can focus on hanging out, creating gourmet treats, and bonding with each other.
22. Say Cheese!
This one’s for those who prefer savory treats over sweets. Say Cheese is a highly interactive and entertaining experience led by seasoned experts who provide clear instructions, trivia, and laughter. Your team will explore the wonderful world of mozzarella and ricotta cheese making from the comfort of their homes using gourmet ingredients delivered to their doors. All they need is wifi and maybe a bottle of wine!
23. International Food Tour
Experience the world alongside your virtual team with the International Food Tour. You’ll use all of your senses with this fun, educational, and interactive experience, completing international food-themed challenges along the way. Teams will divide roles, strategize, and communicate as they taste from a vast number of cultures under the pressure of time.
Whether it’s learning how ceviche is made in Peru, sipping a popular beverage from Japan, or sharing a family recipe, it’s all about getting out of your comfort zone together. In the end, the team with the highest score is the winner!
24. Cookie Tales
Arm your team with all-inclusive cookie kits in this virtual cookie decorating experience. It’s not just about icing on cookies, either. Teams will tell stories through a series of images created on six cookies. Themes range from fairy tales and modern romance to detective and mystery, and no matter what happens, the results of Cookie Tales are always delicious.
25. Virtual Happy Hour & Mixology
Ready to take Virtual Happy Hour to the next level? This online mixology class is perfect for creating a sense of camaraderie. It’s hosted by an award-winning mixologist who guides your team through a lighthearted event as they learn tips, tricks, and recipes from a real pro.
(‘Tis the season? Keep an eye out for special holiday offerings on our Virtual Holiday Happy Hour page!)
Let the Feast Begin—Together
Are you ready to cook up some team spirit? Create memories through flavor? Serve up success? Sounds like it’s time for a tasting party!
Sharing meals brings people together, and all of our culinary team building events are designed to build connections, spark creativity, and leave lasting impressions. Whether you’re in-person, virtual, or hybrid, we have the recipe for your team’s success.
Don’t wait. Schedule your food-tasting event now and watch your team connect like never before.
