The Best Icebreakers and Team-Builders For Culinary Arts Competition Teams

Explain to the group that this is designed to get to know each other and that they are also competing for points: the team with the most correct guesses wins. Team members are encouraged to help each other brainstorm ideas.

Arrange everyone in a circle, sitting on the floor with their groups. Distribute 3×5 cards. Give everyone 5 minutes to write three statements about themselves: two which are true and one which is false.

PG13 rules apply: they can write nothing overtly sexual, racist, or otherwise offensive or the entire team loses 5 points. Examples: I can speak two languages fluently; My favorite animal is the peacock; I have travelled to the Swiss Alps; I love cats; I play the tuba in the marching band.

Each person introduces themselves, then reads their card. Each team confers and then makes one guess. The team with the most correct guesses by the end of the game wins.

Explain that this is a completely silent game with three rounds. The team with the most points at the end of the third round wins. On the other hand, if any member of a team speaks, grunts, or makes any other noise, the team is disqualified from that round.

Explain the participants will silently arrange themselves into a line, with respect to certain characteristics: Number of Siblings, Shoe size, and Birthday. If there is a tie (or they demand a fourth “go”), height.

Once each group is satisfied that they have their order correct, they all have to clap at exactly the same time to announce that they finished. The first team done wins three points, second team gets two, third team gets 1.

Explain that designing a menu is challenging; chefs try out things they like or they think look pretty on a plate, then get defensive when others don’t find it appealing. Sometimes, they find something with promise, but have a hard time finding a variation that works better: instead, they make the same thing over and over without ever changing the basic dish enough to make it actually BETTER.

Explain that before students start dreaming up menus, they and their team need to focus on the mindset necessary to engage in prototyping and testing. Each time you practice a possible recipe, it is a prototype. And each time you taste that recipe or have another student taste it, you are testing.

To practice these skills, here is what we will do: each team must build the tallest free-standing tower possible – that will support a marshmallow without breaking or falling over – in 18 minutes. They can only use the supplies they have on the table and nothing else.

Form a circle, holding hands, facing in to the centre.

Announce that you want the group to – “SAY WHAT I SAY, AND DO WHAT I SAY.”

Practice this skill with one of four commands – “JUMP IN,” “JUMP OUT,” “JUMP LEFT” or “JUMP RIGHT.”

Call out a series of ‘Jump’ commands, one after another for 20 seconds.

Re-form the circle, and announce that you now want the group to – “SAY THE OPPOSITE OF WHAT I SAY, AND DO WHAT I SAY.”

Continue with a series of ‘jump’ commands, one after another for 20 seconds, or until the circle breaks up too much.

Separate into small groups of 5-10 people.

Explain that their goal as a small group is to build the tallest free-standing structure they can, using only the

riches of their shoes in five minutes.

Explain that ‘free-standing’ means that nothing – no seat, no hands, no walls, etc – can be used to keep the

growing tower upright.

When time’s up, ask for everyone to step away from their structures, and use measuring tape to determine which is the tallest.

Form into pairs facing each other.

One partner begins by calling “SET” which will cause both partners to place their hands behind their backs and extend a certain number of fingers on one or both hands.

When ready, the other partner will call “GO” causing both people to thrust their hands forward so that all four hands can be seen.

The first person to call out the correct sum of all extended fingers, wins that round.

Play several rounds, then swap partners.

To begin, present a few rounds of Your Add to warm-up your group.

Within a large, open playing space, designate three or four areas as belonging to well-known cities or countries of the world, eg New York, Tokyo, Sydney, etc.

Ask each person to stand in the area belonging to that city or country that they’d like to visit the most.

Each person aims to travel to each of the designated cities/countries in a clockwise direction as often as possible within two minutes.

To move from one city/country to the next, a person must win a quick game of Your Add involving any person standing in the same area.

The ‘winner’ is permitted to advance clockwise to the next city, while the ‘loser’ will remain in the same area and engage a new, random person in a new round of Your Add.

The person who completes the most number of rotations (of all areas) within the allotted time is declared the winner.

Everyone spreads out in a large open space.

Instruct your group to walk when you say “WALK” and to stop walking when you say “STOP.”

Issue a series of these two commands, in any order, for 20 to 30 seconds to help your group practice responding.

When ready, announce that you will now swap the meaning of these commands, so “WALK” means stop walking and “STOP” means to walk.

Challenge your group and each individual to continue to be as accurate and as fast as possible responding to each command.

When ready, announce two new commands :

– “NAME” invites everyone to say their own name out loud; and

– “CLAP” invites your group to perform one simultaneous clap.

Practice these two new commands together with “WALK” and ”STOP.”

Finally, announce you will swap the meaning of the last two commands, eg when you call “NAME” everyone claps and vice versa.

Now that everyone knows and has practiced, start eliminating everyone who gets something wrong until you are down to one.

Each team will get a tablecloth and all the members will be instructed to stand on top of it.

Instruct members that they must flip over the tablecloth without stepping off or touching the floor.

Then instruct them that the first try was for practice. The REAL contest is to do it again, but this time in complete silence and in less than 5 minutes.

First team done, 3 points, second, 2, and third, 1.

Explain that each group needs to build a pyramid with plastic cups (3 on the bottom, 2 in the middle, 1 on the top). Group members cannot touch the cups with their hands or any other part of their bodies, even if a cup falls over or on the floor.