Ready, Steady, Cook!
This is a really cool idea that was posted to the Guide Mailing List by Sandra Doyle from Dublin, Ireland. What a great team-building activity! Besides, there's food to eat at the end of the game...
Sandra wrote to the List: "This is an activity which we did at our Guider's Conference a few weeks ago. It is suitable for older Guides and the idea came from a British TV. programme of the same name. The rules (guidelines!!!) have been modified to suit our needs..."
Basically, you have teams. We had 12 on our team. Smaller numbers would probably be better when doing this with Guides. Each team is given the same items of food. There is also a table with a selection of other food items and equipment e.g. food mixer, extra bowls, whisks etc. The items will depend on your situation - no point having electrical items if you are camping outdoors!
Each team has 2 minutes to look through their items and plan their meal. Then allow teams 20 minutes to use all the items given to make a meal. Then the judges can go around to each team , taste the meal and choose a winning team. While the judges are doing their final deliberations the teams are given 5 minutes to clear up everything.
Each team got the following items: 2 tomatoes 2 hard-boiled eggs 6 leaves of lettuce 1 bread-roll 1 orange 1 pear 1/2 packet of biscuits 1 carrot herbs
The following were on the main table for use by all teams:
Here's the winning menu. Please keep in mind that all members of the team
were adults:
STARTER Egg Mayonnaise Strips of lettuce, 1 hard-boiled egg halved, tomato, orange, grated carrot, white rice mould, sauce (made with mayo. and herbs) which was poured over the egg, cayenne pepper sprinkled over the sauce.
MAIN COURSE Breast of chicken, ribbons of carrots, 1 hard-boiled egg mashed, half tomato scooped out and added to the egg, which was then seasoned, add a little mayo and put mixture back into tomato. Breast of chicken fanned out with slices of tomato and cucumber placed between slices. Chicken placed on lettuce leaves. Mould of yellow rice Crisps