上周我给一家荷兰跨国公司举办了一个团队精神的厨艺活动，共有10个人来参加。

Last week I hosted a 10-person cross cultural team building cooking class for a Dutch multinational company.

 

 

这个活动和我其他的厨艺班很不同。首先他们来自同一个公司，集中到上海进行培训，在全天开会后希望通过这个机会可以让大家一起放松而同时学到一些有趣的日常技巧，好过去唱卡拉OK或去餐厅吃一顿。同事们来自内地、香港、新加坡、荷兰及英国。如何让大家动手制作并吃上一顿美味的晚餐呢？

This cooking class is quite different from our usual ones.  First of all, the company held an all day meeting and arrived in the evening.  How do we motivate them to group together for a fun event?  Participants came from China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Holland and the UK.  How do we make everyone enjoy a nice meal?

 

 

不同国家有不同的吃饭时间习惯。我们中国人一般吃比较早，外国人大部分可以晚上八点才开始吃饭，西班牙人则更厉害，晚上十点前不会吃晚餐。所以为了避免参加者肚子饿，我先为大家做了一些自制面包酱来配法式面包。当天的面包来自保罗贝香Paul Bakery (http://www.paul.fr/uk/histoire.php)。

Dinner time varies in different countries. While Chinese tend to eat early, europeans might eat dinner around 8pm.  Some Spaniards don't even dine until 10pm.  So to avoid everyone getting hungry, weI prepared a few homemade bread dip just to whet their appetite.  The bread came from Paul Bakery in Shanghai.(http://www.paul.fr/uk/histoire.php)

 

 

为了提供典雅的气氛，我们当天用了全套统一的德国菲仕乐品牌的不锈钢餐具。(http://www.fissler.com/en/products/cutlery/lines/classic.html)

To add to the atmosphere, we used matching sets of Fissler stainless steel cutlery.

 

 

酒杯和水杯也用了同一系列的 Schott Zwiesel 品牌水晶杯。

(http://www.schott-zwiesel.com/en/products/vina.html)

Wine and water crystal glasses we used the Viña series products from Schott Zwiesel.

 

我们也给了参加者每人一份我们自己设计的菜单做为纪念品。

We also printed out our in-house designed menu as a souvenir for the participants.

 

为了避免烹饪时衣服弄脏，我们也提供给各位参加者一条我们自己设计的围裙并做为礼物让他们带走。

So as not to get their clothes dirty (but only their hands), we also designed and presented each participant with an apron.

 

 

当晚我们提供并介绍给大家意大利天然矿泉水，这种水和我们平时在超市买的苏打水并不一样。首先前者是从意大利天然的水泉源头罐装，分天然有汽或没气泡。苏打水只不过是蒸馏水加入了二氧化碳，水质差别也很大。这个意大利高品质天然矿泉水中文叫圣培露 (http://www.sanpellegrino.com/index.html)

We also featured Italian sparkling and still water.  It was interesting to see different participatns wanting to taste the two different styles, sparkling or still.  Indeed, imported mineral water is only just gaining popularity in China.

 

为了让参加者尝试国产葡萄酒，我当晚用了怡园酒庄的协奏曲系列白葡萄酒

(http://www.grace-vineyard.com/en/news_280.aspx) 。

而红葡萄酒来自智利 (http://www.migueltorres.cl/wps/portal/tch/home_en) 。

So as to give our out of town guests a taste of China, we featured Grace Vineyard's Symphony Series white wine as one of our two choices of wines that evening.  The red wine (Cabernet Sauvignon) came from Miguel Torres winery in Chile.

 

参加者当天下厨的菜单为：

Here is what the participants cooked:

 

Appetizer开胃菜

自制虾仁金针菇馅儿或韭菜猪肉香菇馅儿饺子

Chinese dumplings filled with

Shrimp & enoki mushroom or pork with shitake and chives

 

Mains主菜

Herb rubbed roast chicken

香料草烤母鸡

Bread crumb grilled sea bass

面包糠烤海鲈鱼

Mashed potatoes

土豆泥

Tomato and cucumber salad with lemon juice olive oil vinaigrette

番茄黄瓜色拉配柠檬汁陈醋橄榄油酱

 

Cheese奶酪

Dutch style Gouda cheese

荷兰式硬奶酪配水果干

 

Dessert甜点

Traditional British Apple Crumble

传统英式黄油酥皮烤苹果

 

 

我们预先把参加者分为三组，把不同国籍的同事也分开。

So we separated the kitchen crews into three groups, and tried to mix different nationalities together.

 

跨文化的活动当然要要求外国人包饺子。

What best to represent cross cultural understanding than for a Dutch and a Brit to wrap the Chinese dumpling.

参加者效率很高，不久就把所有的菜准备好，也非常自觉把厨具清洗并收拾好！

Participants were all very efficient, it didn't take long for everyone to prepare the dishes, and they also cleaned up the station!

 

这就是他们做的海鲈鱼。

So this was the roasted seabass.

 

美味的烤鸡。

And the roast chicken.

 

活动之前，我也提前给了3个不同的就餐闲谈话题让大家预先准备。在吃饭时我们就用了这几个关于美食的话题来讨论，引导大家多交谈并互相了解。

We also asked participants to prepare three different topics of table conversations that evolved around food. 



吃完饭后，我还给了大家做了一个功夫茶茶道的介绍，帮助消化美味的晚餐。

At the end of the meal, we also gave a Chinese Kung Fu Cha demonstration to help with digestion!