Corporate Team Building Events
at Blue Ribbon

Blue Ribbon Cooking & Culinary Center is Seattle's premier provider of corporate team building events.

How it Works

Themes from any of our classes can be transformed into corporate team activities for groups of up to 150. We provide an instructor for every 12 guests. Participants receive hands-on cooking instruction and then feast together on the incredibly delicious meal they've created. It's fun, educational, builds morale, and is designed to allow everyone from the novice cook to a master chef to participate comfortably.

Standard classes are 3 hours, offered in several different formats, and can be arranged to cover any topic or ethnic cuisine. Each class is custom-designed with your company's needs in mind. Classes are held at our 5,200-square-foot waterfront culinary center on Lake Union. For more information, to check date availability or to sign up for a corporate team activity give us a call at 206-328-2442.

Event Formats

Any of our events can be customized to meet your company or individual needs. We do have a couple of standard formats that we have found are very popular with most of our clients. While the time structure of the different events is usually the same, the hands-on cooking portion can vary.

Our standard cooking class events are three hours long. For the first half hour guests will enjoy the delectable array of appetizers, created by our international staff of chefs, in addition to a beverage bar. During the next hour and a half you’ll cook hands-on in our kitchens with our chef instructors. The last hour you’ll be seated at our lake view tables and enjoy the meal that you and your co-workers have created.

Collaborative

With the collaborative format, you determine the menu from our seasonal list of menu courses. Your group will then work with the chefs during the hands-on cooking portion to cook the predetermined recipes in order to create a spectacular meal. When the cooking is complete you can relax at your dining tables overlooking Lake Union while the chefs plate and serve your meal to you.

Classic Iron Chef

This format is for those that are more competitive in nature. It is also an effective vehicle to bring together employees that are not familiar with each other that you would like to integrate and/or work as a team. Guests are divided into teams of approximately 12 and a professional chef instructor is assigned to assist each team as much or as little as they would like. During the hands-on cooking portion of the event, each team has to design and execute a complete meal consisting of a protein, side dishes and a dessert. Different main ingredients for each group’s protein component and dessert are assigned and sample recipes utilizing those ingredients are provided. When the cooking is complete, each team’s creations are placed on a buffet and everybody enjoys the delicious food at our lakeside dining tables while the judging takes place behind the scenes. Teams are awarded certificates for different accomplishments. As many teams can be awarded as the coordinator would like to recognize – one team or all teams.

Other Formats

In addition to our Collaborative and Classic Iron Chef formats, we have other formats and add-on options available. Some of these include a Pike Place Market Shopping Excursion with your chef, wine tastings, cheese tastings, cocktail classes or cocktail competitions, an amuse bouche competition, or Restaurant Wars where each team “creates” a restaurant by choosing a name, designing table settings and creating full menus for their establishments, in addition to a three course meal. If you have other ideas or needs, we would be happy to accommodate them.

» Menu Suggestions for Private Events

Current Menu Favorites

Appetizers:
Marinated Shrimp with Champagne Buerre Blanc
Thai Grilled Chicken Skewers with Honey-Peanut Glaze
Italian Bread filled with Warm Herbed Mushrooms and Gorgonzola
European Cheese and Fruit Platter with Artisan Breads

Soup or Salad:
Winter Chop Salad of Romaine, Apples, Pears, Gorgonzola and Hazelnuts
Spinach Salad with Roasted Red Onions, Pecans, Dried Cranberries, Goat Cheese and Citrus Dressing
Wild Mushroom Soup with Chestnuts and Roasted Fennel

Entrees:
Pecan Crusted Chicken Breast with Flambéed Pears and Riesling
Goat Cheese, Potato and Leek au Gratin
Green Beans with Cranberries

OR

Slow Roasted Salmon with Blackberry Butter Sauce
Homemade Pasta with Lemon Chive Sauce
Savory Vegetable Strudel

OR

Traditional Steak au Poivre
Rosemary Blue Cheese Scalloped Potatoes
Roasted Fennel with Cherry Tomatoes, Olives, Garlic and Olive Oil

Dessert:
Carmel Walnut Upside-Down Banana Cake
Liquid Chocolate Cake with Creamy Carmel Sauce and Cultured Cream Dessert Sauce
Blackberry Pear Cobbler with Vanilla Ice Cream

» Menu Suggestions for Private Events

Blue Ribbon Cancellation/Postponement Policy for Cooking Class Event
If necessary, given four weeks advanced notice, events maybe rescheduled for another available date within two years of your original event date. If an event is postponed or cancelled within four weeks from the original event date the deposit is forfeited. Blue Ribbon shall not be held liable due to unforeseeable circumstances or circumstances beyond their control. All deposits are non-refundable.

For liability purposes, any leftover food items that are not served to guests remain the property of Blue Ribbon Cooking School, and are donated to Seattle's food banks when appropriate.

Clients & Testimonials

Some of the companies that use Blue Ribbon Cooking are Abbott Laboratories, Accenture, Adobe Systems, Aetna U.S. Healthcare, Amgen, Apple Physical Therapy, AT&T Wireless, Ater Wynne LLP, Avanade, BD&A, Bayer Lab, Berk & Associates, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, Bowhead Holding Company, Bradlee Distributors, Bright Horizons Family Solutions, Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, Captura, Chicago Title, Chiron, Clarion Partners, Communication Matters, Inc., Construction Systems Management, Inc., Costco Wholesale, Cozen O’Connor Law Firm, CXO Media, Davis Wright Tremaine, Deloitte Consulting, Dorsey & Whitney LLP, Eli Lilly, Expedia, First Tech Credit Union, First Union Securities, Forest Pharmaceuticals, Fostars, Foster, Pepper & Shefelman, PLCC, Genetech, GlaxoSmithKline, Goldman Sachs, Graham & Dunn, Grant Thorton LLP, Hackworth Architects, Hapag Lloyd, Hewlett Packard, Hillis Clark Martin & Peterson, Hines, HomeStone Mortgage, Horton Lantz & Low, icos, IDX Systems, KPMG, UW, Lighthouse Properties, Lumberman’s, Management Northwest, Inc., Merck Human Health, Merrill Corp, Microsoft, Microsoft Press, Monet Mobile Networks, New York Times, nbbj, O’Dea High School, Onyx Software, Organon Pharmaceutical, Overlake School, Paragon Real Estate Advisors Inc., Pemco, Perkins Coie, Pfizer, Pharmacia, Point B Solutions, Precious Little Ones Daycare, Premera Blue Cross, Seattle Children’s Hospital, Seattle Primary Physicians, Radiant Research, Riddell Williams, Rockwell Automation, Schering-Plough, Soft Resources, St. Joseph School, Starbucks, The Ki Group, LLP, Time Inc, Totem Ocean Trailer Express, Travelocity.com, University Child Development School, University Prep, University of Washington, Voyager Capital, Washington Dental Service, Washington Mutual, Washington State Employees Credit Union, Washington State University, and Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati.

[back to top]

Reservations

Contact us via email info@blueribboncooking.com or call 206-328-2442 for class reservations.

[back to top]

Driving Directions

Blue Ribbon is located in Seattle's beautiful Eastlake neighborhood.

» Click here for driving directions and maps

[back to top]