There's nothing quite like a really sharp butcher knife, a blowtorch and a cast-iron frying pan to get your employees to bond. Just ask Julie Burke. She's built a business around it.

Tall Order is one of several companies in Canada that uses food as a way to help businesses build team spirit and better understand their employees.

Although there are numerous forms of culinary teambuilding, it's all based on the same belief.

"Food is the gateway to the soul," says Burke.

Photo courtesy of Tall Order
Kitchen Fitness participants do push-ups using food as weights.

For $100 to $200 a head, clients of Tall Order, which include companies both large and small, can sign up for everything from Kitchen Fitness (think bicep curls with cantaloupes and lunges with squash), to Foraging Organics (forage alongside co-workers for ingredients to cook a four-course Pacific West Coast picnic).

Too Many Cooks, a program that requires teams to roast, torch, pound and fold their way to a meal, is among the most popular.

Like the others, it is rewarded with a gourmet meal and a glass of wine.

Although Tall Order is based in Vancouver, its programs are offered worldwide.

"We're the only ones doing this that have a mobile team," says Burke, pointing out that the company has been hired by clients as far away as France.

Burke says the current programs are not to be mistaken with cooking classes.

"These are not cooking classes. This is about using food as a toolkit. What we are offering is a great way to collaborate, have fun and relieve stress," she says.

Burke says she continues to be amazed at how food cuts through facades and exposes people's true personalities.

"It's really neat to see the behaviour of people through food," she says. "They lose themselves in what they are doing and they can't fake it."

Burke, who worked in the catering business for more than 20 years (she owned her own business for 18 of them), says she's certain she's on to something. "After all those years of doing catering and learning how people connect, I feel confident about what I am doing," she says.

Photo courtesy of Tall Order
A Kitchen Fitness participant does step-ups over baled hay with squashes in her hands.

Cooking schools are also in on the culinary teambuilding trend.

Along with corporate cooking classes, the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts in Vancouver's Granville Island offers several unique corporate programs.

One of them is based on the popular reality show Iron Chef.

In this challenge, clients are divided into teams and given the task of creating a meal within 30 minutes using a mystery ingredient.

The most important part of the challenge is deciding on who has the leadership skills in the group to act as the head chef.

"It's always interesting to see if they chose the right leader from the group," says Giulia Vendramin, catering and event co-ordinator at the school. "Forty per cent of the time they don't."

Vendramin, who came up with the idea of using the Iron Chef concept (she's a huge fan of TV reality shows), echoes Burke in saying that food has a magical way of cutting through the surface to show people's true colours.

"I watch them in the kitchen... . Some people are so calm under pressure and they are able to delegate the right work to the right people," she says.

But they're not all that way.

"Some are horrible," she says.

Once their meal is prepared, the group faces a panel of judges, which includes members of their own company. They are not judged on how great their meal tastes, or even how it looks. Instead, they are judged on how well they worked as a team.

"You learn about how your employees work as team. Some have never worked together before. Some groups come from different divisions within a company. It gives them a chance to work together," she says.

Although it sounds like a serious challenge, the emphasis is on fun.

"We were all very serious when we first started this because we are a school. We learned along the way that people want to have fun with teambuilding," she says.

Another popular challenge is one that is based on the TV show The Apprentice. During a recent challenge based on this theme, clients were required to break off into teams and choose a project manager to lead them in the creation of their own pizza business. In just an hour and a half, the groups were required to make mini pizzas, market them and sell them on the street. The money was donated to charity.

"At first, when we told them, they looked at us like: 'You have got to be kidding,' but they had the best time," she says.

The cooking school at Strewn winery in Niagara-on-the-Lake has taken a different approach to culinary teambuilding.

"What we primarily do is teambuilding-lite," says Jane Langdon, who owns the winery and cooking school along with her husband, winemaker Joe Will.

"It's not about having a facilitator help a group work through issues. It's about creating a very positive feeling through working together."

During cooking classes, which last about three hours, clients work together to prepare a three-course gourmet meal.

"You have to be co-operative. Each step in a recipe contributes to its success," says Langdon. "You have to negotiate how well the steak is going to be done.

"You have to agree on how much salt and pepper is going to be added at the end. There are a lot of small things you have to work out."

She says creating a meal and enjoying it together afterward breaks down all the barriers or distinctions within the hierarchy of a company.

According to Langdon, many clients are referrals from area hotels. "Many companies are here for a few days of meetings. They want to do something in the evening that's not just about going out for dinner," she says.

So far, she says the classes have been a huge hit.

"We've had hundreds and hundreds of groups through," she says. "It's worked out fabulously well."

(Christina Friedrichsen can be reached at friedrichsen@businessedge.ca)