1. When cutting-edge companies want to foster team spirit, relax or even entertain clients, breaking bread together is no longer enough – they now bake that bread themselves. Corporate cookery courses are the latest exercise in business bonding.
2. Venturi’s Table claims to be the UK’s only dedicated corporate cookery school. Anna Venturi, the London-based school’s founder, says business is brisk, as teams from companies including Abbott Mead Bickers, Merrill Lynch and eBay head to Wandsworth to cook up a storm.
3. Ms Venturi says cooking appeals to companies because it brings people together: ‘It’s not competitive. We just want everyone to relax and have a good time. In fact, it’s almost therapy. We get everyone, from directors to secretaries, from graduates to retirement dos.’
4. The team from Cereal Products Worldwide, a joint venture between Nestlé and General Mills, making mushroom ravioli, stuffed loin of pork and sweetened oranges with profiteroles in the kitchen at Venturi’s Table, appears to prove Ms Venturi’s point that cooking can build teams.