Discover Africa Group Goes Gourmet

Discover Africa Group team-building

Team-building these days is taking a leap into a whole new direction. Gone are the boot-camp days of donning tracksuits, and hitting the outdoors, an obstacle course in wait; allowing for group dynamics of all variations to surface. Gone are the days of shooting off to the nearest bowling alley, in hopes of spurring on the healthy competitive nature that naturally arises. Gone are these traditional days, in steps the new team-building route: TeamCooking™ team-building is now taking centre stage, and our team at Discover Africa Group found out first hand why this form of team-building is growing so rapidly in popularity.

Greg and Judd representing for the boys

Discover Africa Group is quintessentially a team of us, falling under the same company umbrella, made up of the Drive South Africa team and the Overlanding Africa team. We were all told to come dressed in casuals and to prepare for the fact we would be out of the office between 10 am to 3 pm. Ladies were also advised that high heels would be inappropriate, leading us to start the speculations as to where we were going to be taken to? What was in store for us? The excitement soon took hold.

Thursday morning came, sneakered feet and casual attire in check, anticipation and intense suspense ensued, soon we were filing into the taxi, ever wondering where in the world we were being led to?

As we reached Green Point, Napier Street, it became apparent that we were in for something of a totally unique and different nature. No bundu bashing for us today…

Entering the alleyway that leads into the Giggling Gourmet™ centre stage kitchen, I was surely unaware of what to expect, having never heard of Giggling Gourmet™, I was genuinely intrigued by this new concept.

Clive cooking up a storm

What Giggling Gourmet™ offers its clientele is “hands-on ExperientialCooking™, team-building TeamCooking™ and demonstration classes”, which offer the chance to build on team members’ communication skills, focusing on the key elements of team-building practices.

Ellena and Megan: from the frying pan, into the fire…

That being said, as one of the newbie’s to the company, I sure felt a closer connection with my fellow team members once the culinary experience was done. There is definitely something about struggling with a recipe together that brings a closer point to relate, when thrown in the deep end of the cooking world, spices and ingredients ever daunting (obviously, by now you can tell that I am not one of those individuals that feel at home in the kitchen…), the fact I was not left to figure out the ins and outs of this strange new world known as ‘the kitchen’ on my own, added to the experience one hundred fold.

Ricarda and myself trying our hands at Chicken Tajine

As each of us presented our Moroccan dishes, a sense of achievement I have never had the pleasure of experiencing before took hold, my first Chicken Tajine dish did not find the fate of my many failed attempts of cooking; I did not burn the chicken, or undercook the meal, a huge accomplishment for this here kitchen ‘noob’.

What the DAG team managed to cook up…

All in all a fun day was had and a few new tricks of the trade got handed down to us by the ever-entertaining cooking facilitator: Jenny Morris.

Food fundi: Jenny Morris instructing us along

A definite recommendation for those seeking to build relationships within the work environment, after all: breaking bread is a timeless act of breaching the tide that divides; so do like the DAG team did and get to giggling as you prep for a gourmet meal, poised to leave those taste buds sated.

If you plan on going on an adventure to Giggling Gourmet from another part of the country, you might want to use a vehicle to get there. Car rental South Africa would be a great place to start looking for the best wheels to get you there.

If you are already in the area and you would like to have the freedom to explore the area you are visiting independently, you might want to look into car hire Cape Town for the perfect set of wheels.