Cook with a home chef from Costa Rica, Wendy!

We love having Wendy as a part of our TTLT community with her incredible stories and flavorful Costa Rican recipes. We’re so excited for you to get to know her a little better! 

Wendy has always believed that the best way to show love is through food. She says, “I love to cook for my friends and family because it’s the way I was taught to show appreciation and share happiness.”

Growing up, Wendy learned to cook in preparation for family gatherings. “Coming from a large Latin country where families get together (30+ people) during the weekend to share a meal, you have to learn how to cook because your hands are needed one way or another.” 

Now Wendy is a tour guide in her beautiful home country where she has been giving tours since she was 16 years old. Wendy loves to read, be surrounded by friends and family, and spend time with her daughters, the “the best blessed adventure” of her life.

When Wendy is not leading tours or making memories with her family, she is teaching the TTLT community how to recreate the unique tastes of her favorite local recipes using fresh ingredients and true Costa Rican flavors.

In her classes, you’ll learn how to cook unique and delicious recipes in simple ways that don’t require messy prep work and can be enjoyed with friends and family to "create a pura vida time.”

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Check out all of TTLT’s live and interactive community cooking classes.

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One Stop Shop: Best Team Building Activities EVERY Work Team Will Love

Let’s cut to the chase. 97.6% of workers want to continue some type of remote work but we can’t ignore the fact that socializing between team members improves communication patterns by more than 50%. How do you get all the socialization that a team needs in a virtual world? 

As connection experts, we have hosted over 300 teams in virtual classes for corporate events and learned that attempting to ‘‘recreate an in-person experience” misses the mark.

Instead, we found that building virtual team building events based on the unique elements of each team and how they value socializing is the key factor to delivering an effective and connective experience for your team.

Here are our top tips for curating the perfect team building cooking experience for all your different teams companywide

For Executive Teams

Executives are used to wining and dining and talking about work offline and after hours when they’re having dinners with each other and sometimes their spouses.

With restaurant restrictions and executive team members now spanning the country, creating this business casual gathering is more difficult.

TTLT Solution: Book a private virtual corporate event and add EYN Recipe Kits and Wine Kits with 3 bottles of boutique wines curated by a Master Sommelier specifically for the recipe of your choosing.

Make it easy for your executives and their loved ones to gather together for something fun, compare notes on the wine, and share a cultural experience together! The best part, there’s no prep work! In our virtual cooking classes with meal kits, our Everything You Need Recipe Kits have Every. Single. Ingredient. Down to the salt, pepper, and olive oil.

We recognize that your executives are busy folks who don’t have time to run to the store or even open their pantry for their virtual event. Our EYN Recipe Kits serve 2-4 people so spouses and partners can be included in the evening.

“​​I coordinated the event...for senior managers. By the end of the class and the next day, they ALL said what a great experience it was.”

For Interns

It’s important to impress your interns with your inclusive company culture so the camaraderie they feel will attract them to stay with your company long term. For remote workers, 16% report that the biggest struggle is loneliness.

In addition, interns might have a particularly challenging setup as some might be early in their careers and don’t have the perfect setup at home - including the kitchen! 

TTLT Solution: Engage and create connection ‘outside the office’ with a team building cooking class that is hands-on, lets people kick back, relax, and laugh a little at each other’s kitchen wins & fails. Eliminate the burden of grocery shopping with EYN Recipe Kits. They won’t need to worry about what their kitchen is lacking because every ingredient they need, and a specialty tool needed for the class, will show up at their doorstep!

On top of that, take your class to the next level with a branded keepsake from your company. Talk to our team about adding branded aprons or kitchen tools to your company EYN Recipe Kits.

For Sales Teams

Every sales team has a healthy, happy dose of competition, and that oftentimes comes out in full force during in-person activities.

How do you recreate that fun and engaging environment virtually for your sales team? Especially if you are looking to knock it out of the park with your 2021 team-building activity. 

TTLT Solution: Spice up your virtual corporate event with a competition! With our cooking classes, we love folks who are up for a little Top Chef Challenge.

We’ll help your team set up a voting system for categories like “Michelin-Star Design”, “Worst Dinner Fail”, or “ Hungriest Chef” and then procure and send prizes to the winners on your behalf. Did somebody say curated wine box?

For Your Holiday Party

Whether you’re planning a companywide office Christmas party or a team-only holiday get-together it’s important to pick an event that matches your group size and group interests. This makes your holiday office party stand out among your other team-building events.

For example, a generic wine and paint night might not be the best choice because unless every invited individual loves art, it’s not going to be a successful evening for everyone. 

TTLT Solution: We want to make your holiday party memorable. You can customize your virtual corporate events to match the interest and skill level of your team with the recipe that you select. From Deliziose cookies to Empanadas, our impressive range of recipes will have something that excites your team and elevates your holiday party experience.

Your holiday party can stand out next to past virtual corporate events by making unique holiday recipes from around the world or engaging in a friendly holiday competition based on decorating and baking skill levels. Let us know how you want to take your holiday party to the next level!

For Happy Hours

Zoom Happy Hours swept companies nationwide as an easy choice for virtual team building events, but teams are facing burnout.

You may be drinking together but how is a happy hour different from any other virtual meeting? What if some team members don’t drink? 

TTLT Solution: Get on your feet! Our cooking classes are NOT a demonstration or a tutorial, you are mixing, sauteing, and cooking step by step with a chef. This virtual corporate event is unlike any other because you’re busy the entire time.

If you’re still interested in a little happy hour element, you can add a cocktail demo to your class and pick a recipe that is great for “bites & drinks” like Crostini & Negroni or Empanadas and Pisco Sour. It’s the best of both worlds!

For Company-wide Engagements

As more companies move to virtual conference-style events, the question of ‘what can we do that’s fun after 7 hours of webinars’ inevitably comes up. With 1,000+ people, finding an engaging and interactive virtual activity that encourages connection and memory-making can be a difficult issue to solve. 

TTLT Solution: Create a “Cooking Passport” as a series of options and cultural dishes to experience, giving your employees the option to ‘travel’ to wherever they’d like. We can help you set up multiple break-out events, customized invitations for your company, unique registration pages, and a series of virtual events that will give your team options to feel like they picked exactly what they want.

Want to level up? Have EYN Recipe Kits delivered directly to your employees’ doorsteps with everything they need to get cooking. They’ll unbox their ingredients like a “gift” - and hey - they might also find a company-branded apron to show off in your class.

“It’s hard being apart from everyone, but this really helped to feel like we were together. It was also fun to come back together after the weekend and our CEO asked, ‘did anyone else make more of that pasta, or was it just me?!’” - Danielle M, Human Ventures

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Engage with Your Virtual Team After Your Team Building Activity

There is nothing like the excitement of wrapping up a virtual team building cooking class. Folks are ready to dive in and eat and everyone stays on during dining time to chat about their newfound kitchen skills, their funniest cooking moment, or how amazed they are by the ease of the recipe.

But then what? Your team had an incredible time connecting and breaking bread together, but what happens next? How can you maximize the team-building momentum? 

54% of employees say a strong sense of community kept them at a company longer in a survey by Gusto. We know that team-building activities are important and we recognize that the follow-up is just as critical to creating a strong sense of community.

Let us support you in cultivating ongoing connections that follow our virtual cooking classes with meal kits, leading to increased connection, engagement, and recall of your memorable & fun time together.

Some of our favorite teams - Zoom, Etsy, Amazon, and Uber - shared with us the ways they keep the team-building momentum created by our cooking classes going.

Try one or two or try them all; it’s about what works best for your unique virtual team! Let’s keep the fun going long after your 90-minute cooking class has landed delicious dishes on your table.

One day after your cooking class…

1. Create a competition. After class, have everybody submit photos of their dish in your communication channel and have your team vote on the submitted dishes. Then give out prizes for different categories like, "Top Chef", "Most Creative Presentation", "The Biggest Fail", “Hungriest Chef”, etc. Keep the conversation going!

 2. Play I Spy. Before class, encourage everyone to “plant” an item in their background that is hidden but visible from the camera. During our team building cooking classes, we take a group photo that we share with you afterward. Once everyone gets the class photo, create an "I Spy" email thread that starts with "I Spy in our cooking class..." and give an award to the person who guesses the item that is out of place.

From a Zoom team that cooked with us!

One week after your cooking class…

3. Share tips. After their class, one team asked in their weekly team meeting, "Who made the pizza recipe again and what toppings did you change?" This encouraged team members to recreate the recipe and share feedback.

For most of your team members, our team building cooking class will be the very first time making the recipe, so sharing tips after class can be helpful. One participant said,  “Our cooking lesson was a super way to engage the team. I think for most of us, this was the first time ever making pasta!” Ask your team about their cooking experience and use questions about the class as an ice breaker activity in the future.

 4. Build a team recipe book. After your cooking class, have folks send in their favorite recipes and create a recipe book along with the recipe you all cooked together. As you take more cooking classes together, you can add recipes to your team recipe book! This is a fun and easy souvenir that you can customize with your company logo and give as a gift during the holiday season.

One month after your cooking class…

5. Send a follow-up gift. Gift everyone on your team a TTLT apron or kitchen tool as a follow-up to their cooking class. If you plan a virtual corporate event with us and are interested in gifting your team members a TTLT item, ask for our private class discount code! Check out our TTLT Shop for more gift ideas.

Six months after your cooking class…

6. Travel somewhere new! Poll your team on the next destination you want to visit through one of our cooking classes. Italy? Thailand? Peru? France? The world is your oyster. View all of our recipes, their modifications, and their difficulty level. One class participant said, “I had the opportunity to transport myself out of Bloomington, IL to the kitchens of Japan and Italy.”

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Shop Small Business Gift Guide 2021

At The Table Less Traveled, we are boutique travel experts, cooking class connoisseurs, world explorers, food enthusiasts, and patrons of local businesses. Supporting local makers is an integral part of TTLT’s values and we are grateful that so many of them share their stories, products, and knowledge with us when we visit them on our small group trips. For Small Business Saturday, we created a Shop Small Business Gift Guide for some of our favorite state-side small businesses! They have great gift options for wine lovers, foodies, and travelers for the upcoming 2021 holiday season.

For Wine Lovers

Archipelago Wines

The very first time our founder, Annie, had Pétillant Natural was with Marti & Chris from Archipelago Wines. She instantly fell in love with their bubbly varietal and enjoyed listening to their passion for wine and personal histories on the islands, that she had to share it with the rest of the TTLT community on our San Juan Islands trip. Now we’re sharing with all of you!

Orcas Island Winery

Orcas Island Winery is the first and only destination winery on Orcas Island and is home to an always-evolving winery and shop. Wes and Tera curate the best of the island’s providers, feature wines from award-winning Washington state winemaker, Chris Lawler, and pour up to 10 locally produced & crafted wines, including reds, whites, rosé, and natural sparkling wines. We love working with Wes, who is always open to our big TTLT ideas and created an incredible experience on our San Juan Islands trip. 

Crunchy Red Fruit 

CRF is one of our cooking class partners! We love to invite master sommelier, Jackson, to share his expertise and love for wine in our online cooking classes. Crunchy Red Fruit works with small producers who work organically in their vineyards and don’t obscure the natural taste of their grapes with chemical intervention. They also work with wineries that are transparent in their process and are honest about what they create. They have a few different subscription membership options and they also offer themed boxes!

Madrone Cellars

Madrone Cider & Cellar wines are made with minimal intervention, working with local farms for their hard cider apples and local ingredients. Shaun and Amy Salamida are striving to bring a taste of Europe to the San Juan Islands, and they do just that! Over the years, we’ve had the pleasure of working with Shaun to create one-of-a-kind experiences on the farm where they produce their ciders and wines. If you get the chance, stop into their tasting room in Friday Harbor town.

For Foodies and Travelers

Girl Meets Dirt

Girl Meets Dirt produces locally sourced, award-winning jams, shrubs, and bitters that are made in an old-school style that emphasizes structure and pure, ripe, naturally grown fruit. Their ingredient lists are short and sweet and they don’t use commercial pectin in their products. We’re talking fruit trees that have been producing for over a century and products prepared by hand. Absolutely mouthwatering. We got to meet the “Girl” of Girl Meets Dirt, Audra, who has an incredible story and background. You can purchase single products from their site but they also gift box options. Their preserves are a staple for any good charcuterie board and can be paired with a variety of sweets and savories.

San Juan Sea Salts 

An incredible product and story! San Juan Sea Salts sources their seawater from a private beach on the south end of San Juan Island and solar evaporates the seawater instead of boiling (like most artisan salt producers). One of the things that make their salt so unique is that they let the seawater completely evaporate, which allows the trace minerals naturally present in the ocean to stay in the salt, adding to its briny flavor. They offer so many different salts and seasonings, and right now their gift sets are on sale! (Highly recommend, the popcorn blend.)

Forest Ceramic Co.

If you’re looking for all of the beautiful vases, cups, and bowls, this is your stop. Forest Ceramic Co. experiments with marbling, layering, and carving colored slips to create incredibly unique designs in their products. We got to visit them in their studio during our San Juan Island trip and we’re amazed at the skill and artistry that goes into every single item. Sean and Valeri are truly a treasure on Orcas Island, and we loved hearing about their inspirations, stories, trials, and errors with their art. 

For Cocktail Enthusiasts

Highside Distilling

We love working with Highside Distilling in our online cooking classes and pairing the perfect dish with Matt’s cocktails. At Highside Distilling, their mission is to provide a uniquely Pacific Northwest experience to the time-honored craft of fermentation, distillation, and aging of spirits. Whether it be Single Malt Whiskey, Gin, or Amaro, all of their products are a nod to tradition. They have recipes on their website that are definitely worth trying and they offer a wide selection of spirits. Make sure they ship to your state!

San Juan Island Distilling

Suzy and Hawk were so open to sharing their distillery, spirits, and stories with us as we connected over food and Suzy’s cocktails on ourSan Juan Islands trip. San Juan Island Distillery makes wonderful small-batch ciders and spirits, including 14 different gins, several delicious liqueurs, and flavored brandies. Not to mention, their premium award-winning apple brandy, which won gold and best in class from the American Craft Spirits Association. They only ship to Washington State residents, so if you’re lucky to fall into that category, go check out their website! 

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And of course, thank you for supporting our small business over the years! We are grateful for the community we have created with all of you through our international trips and virtual cooking classes.

To continue supporting our small business, check out our upcoming trips, cooking classes, TTLT Shop, and gift card options!

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How to Plan the Best Office Christmas Party for Your Virtual Team

With collaboration, communication, and loneliness making up 32% of the biggest struggles individuals face with remote work, planning a virtual event has never been more important to connect with your hybrid or virtual team. However, that doesn’t mean sifting through virtual event options in 2021 is easy.

As experts in building connections, community, and team building, here are three suggestions to plan the best Christmas office party for your virtual team.  

1. Mix it up! 

Whether you’ve already tried every virtual event under the sun or this is your very first one, choose a unique experience that is personalized to your team and goals.

Steer clear of companies that don’t emphasize understanding your goals, whether it’s team building or celebrating an accomplishment. Clicking “buy” on a generic event online might be easy but you don’t really know what you’re getting.

2. Always choose interactive!

 Zoom keeps us connected but it also keeps us in our chairs. Don’t choose a virtual event where you’re sitting the entire time. Pick an event that gets people on their feet and moving but still encourages connection and conversation. 

3. Take it to the next level! 

Connection is not a one-time transaction. One team-building activity isn’t going to immediately build open and thoughtful team communication. Have a plan to elevate your experience through special perks and keep your team engaged on an ongoing basis after your virtual event. Creating meaningful connections is in the follow-up.

Check out our interactive cooking classes at The Table Less Traveled!

We take the time to get on a call and understand what you’re trying to accomplish with your team event. We suggest recipes and chefs that are the best fit for your group and date and time preference to accommodate worldwide teams 24/7. And if we don’t think we’re a good match, we’ll be honest and encourage you to find a different event. 

Our cooking classes are not a cooking show or demonstration. You and your team members will be on your feet the entire time, sauteing, stirring, and cooking alongside the chef.

One class participant with Backblaze said, “Not only did I learn something new, I got a little exercise too! Super interactive! Great all around!” During class, our hosts and chefs encourage conversation, make connections, and coax individuals away from their mute buttons. 

We offer Everything You Need (EYN) Recipe Kits delivered to each participant’s home. We want to eliminate any stress or distraction, and ensure each participant starts on the same level with the same ingredients and can focus on being present. 

“Social time turns out to be deeply critical to team performance, often accounting for more than 50% of positive changes in communication patterns.” With the right team-building activity, you can strengthen your connection and improve feelings of collaboration even if your team works from home.

At The Table Less Traveled, we work with you to optimize team building and connection.

Meredith Spring took a class with her YPO group and said, “the sense of community we felt through something as simple as cooking together was amazing! It was fun to be “with” people we haven’t been able to see in weeks and loved learning new skills in the kitchen we can use for years to come!” 

Sources:

https://buffer.com/2021-state-of-remote-work

https://hbr.org/2012/04/the-new-science-of-building-great-teams

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Meet our New French Chef - Guillaume

We are excited for Guillaume to join us in expanding our cooking classes into another country with incredible and iconic cuisine: France! 

Get to know Guillaume

Guillaume is originally from Lyon, the world capital of gastronomy. There he was introduced to the art of cooking by his parents and grandma from a very young age. His grandma was a cook for a school in a little village near them.

He says, “I always enjoyed watching her because of the passion she put into her job.” Growing up amidst the smells of freshly made meals inspired Guillaume to leave home when he was 16 and start training as a baker. 

Between his training and learning to cook on his own for the first time, he found his passion for cooking. However, he struggled at first to find his place in the culinary world.

He says, “Over the years, I have worked in different positions in restaurants but never really found my own passion in the industry. I was struggling trying to find a good fit for myself until I realized that I could combine my love of working with people with my culinary knowledge and skills in the field of nutrition.” Guillaume is now studying to become a certified dietician.

Like The Table Less Traveled, sharing meals around the table is a highlight of cooking for Guillaume. He loves to prepare breakfast and brunch for his family and friends whether it’s Eggs Benedict or something simple like toast and orange juice.

When asked about his love for French food he says, “French food is a living art. French cuisine is based on recipes that have been in the culture for centuries. These dishes vary and play different roles in different regions. For example, crepes in most parts of France is a sweet treat but in Brittany, it's called Galette and it's mostly salty, it's also a signature of the region. The exciting thing, and what I like the most, is that French food is continuously evolving–new flavors, new techniques but still the old traditions.” 

Guillaume’s first class is on September 12th and he will be teaching us to make Pear and Pecan Crepes! Other than learning how to make an incredible French dish, Guillaume will also share tips and techniques about nutrition to break stereotypes around French food. This is a class you don’t want to miss!

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Check out all of TTLT’s live and interactive community cooking classes.

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Chefs from Around the World - Meet Chef Nacho in Urubamba, Peru

TTLT founder, Annie cheng sim, with chef nacho in peru

Encircled by the Andes Mountains in Peru, in the heart of what once was the Incan Empire, sits the Sacred Valley of the Incas, or the Urubamba Valley. 

On our 9-day Taste of Peru trip, we spend our first few nights in the country at an adorable boutique hotel nestled in this valley. Because the altitude is quite high here at 9,500 feet above sea level (still not as high as the city of Cusco at 11,000 feet), we start slowly here for a couple days as we adjust to the altitude (for reference: Seattle is only 152 feet above sea level, and altitude sickness can kick in after 2,500 feet). 

A visit with Chef Nacho is one of our first activities at this hotel, and he undoubtedly leaves a mark on our travelers & guests. As the resident chef, Chef Nacho not only makes exquisite dinners for our travelers when we visit, but also hosts Peruvian cuisine cooking classes in his kitchen for our small groups.

During the trips, we get treated to a "behind the scenes" chef's dinner in the restaurant's kitchen where we watch Chef Nacho calmly and patiently guide us on how to make certain dishes, meanwhile keeping an eye on all the cooks in the kitchen (literally) as they whiz around concocting local specialties for the diners in the restaurant.

Over the years, our friendship with Chef Nacho has grown over the mutual love of Mexico City, his Frida Kahlo apron, and his doggos running circles around each of us. Nacho brings a liveliness (and delicious eats!) to our first few days in Peru, just like he does in our virtual classes.

Without the ability to work when COVID-19 closed borders for Peru, he adapted to online cooking classes quickly, which he says, “allowed us to have a minimum income to survive, since we cannot work and therefore don’t have a salary.”

“What I like the most with the classes,” he continues, “is interacting with the participants and being able to continue sharing Peruvian cuisine, which is so varied and rich, with gastronomic cultural wealth.”

Market in Urubamba where Chef Nacho buys his ingredients

Chef Nacho during the TTLT Taste of Peru cooking class

Nacho and his four doggos

Chef Nacho’s classes have become a sought after staple in the repertoire of live cooking classes we offer because of this rich variety of flavors and also his fun stories shared throughout class, not to mention the surprise appearance of his dogs, or his “lazy kids” as he calls them. So far he has taught over 100 classes with us since April 2020 when he joined the TTLT team, with some of the favorites being empanadas and lomo saltado (Peruvian Stir Fry). 

This spring, Chef Nacho will be bringing back the intricate flavor combinations with a causa and ceviche combo class. Causa rellena remains an iconic Peruvian dish centering on potatoes. Did you know that Peru has more than 4,000 varieties of native grown potatoes, including a range of colors like blue, pink, and bright purple?

Causa, referring to the yellow potatoes used (papa amarilla in Peru), can be said to originate from the Quechuan word kausay, which means “gives life.” However, the origins of the word causa can vary. One version says that in 1879 during the Pacific War when Chile fought against Peru and Bolivia, women collected potatoes to help feed the soldiers since food was so hard to get in cities. The meal was prepared “for the cause,” therefore causa. A layered dish of potatoes, fresh seafood, and avocado and bursting with bright flavors such as lime, aji amarillo paste, and cilantro, causa rellena is a must to make.

Alongside this dish, Chef Nacho will also prepare ceviche - also known as “cebiche, seviche, or sebiche” - a seafood dish declared such an integral part of the country’s national heritage that it even has a holiday in its honor on June 28th!

Ceviche is marinated fresh raw fish that has been cured in fresh citrus juices, alongside onions, garlic, cilantro, chilis, and salt and pepper. Local and regional flavors get added to customize it, so in this class Chef Nacho will prepare his favorite recipe with everyone. Try it for yourself to see how amazing it is!!

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Check out all of TTLT’s live and interactive community cooking classes.

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Celebrating Mothers & the Special Women in our Lives

TTLT founder, Annie cheng sim, with her mother in peru

As April showers turn to May flowers, I always think of my mother who is an avid gardener. And to boot, Mother's Day is just around the corner. My dad notoriously called these "Hallmark holidays," and so my childhood memories of celebrating with parents were always centered around experiences, not things. I remember waking “early” in the morning to cook breakfast in bed for my mom. Whether it was actually a gift was questionable, since my kitchen-cleaning skills still left pancake batter in hard-to-reach places.

As the years progressed, so did our experiences together, and so many of the fun things we both enjoy exploring were an inspiration for how I curated TTLT's overseas adventures. There were components of conversations with locals, learning from artisans about their trades, and (of course) cooking.

Last year, my mom and I celebrated virtually, adding one of her favorite cocktails to our Peruvian cooking class for Mother's Day. This year, as our 'bubbles' have combined, we're excited to share a cooking class together from the same kitchen with one of our chefs overseas…I'm still drooling over Srisuda's Thai Satay class.

We'd love to have you celebrate Mother's Day with us! And in the spirit of sharing, I'd also love to hear your stories, recommendations, and favorite memories of Mother's Day. Looking forward to your comments!

— Annie, Founder & Chief Eating Officer

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Mother’s Day Gift Ideas

Looking for a fun experience to gift to the special women in your life? We’ve got you covered!

Get cooking!

Bake mom a moist Tres Leches Cake with Costa Rican chef Wendy, or sign up for any of our NEW Mother's Day Weekend classes and cook together. In these special Mother’s Day classes, our chefs will be joined in the kitchen by the special women in their life. Another great option is to purchase a Cooking Class gift card to use at a later date.

Give Mom Some ‘Wine’ Down Time

Enjoy some fabulous wine that’s been meticulously curated by Crunchy Red Fruit’s Master Sommelier, Jackson, one of our partners in the Seattle area.

Get a box shipped straight to your door and have a virtual or in-person wine tasting with those special women in your life.

Sip, sip, hooray!

For those located in the Seattle area that want an in-person adventure, head over to Bainbridge Island for a cocktail tasting and a tour of Highside Distilling. Check out their website for their hours and more details.

Not in Seattle? No problem! Check out their store page and get some of their spirits shipped to you, like the Plum Negroni Cocktail Kit or The Amaro Collection, and have a cocktail adventure at home.

Give the Gift of Expression

Roll up your sleeves and unleash the artist within by taking a virtual art class with our friend Morgan Smalley. This workshop is great for beginner artists and more seasoned ones looking to dabble in a new medium. In the workshop, you will join Morgan for “an enchanting online exploration of your own creativity.”

Check out Morgan’s site for a list of upcoming workshop dates and times.

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Holiday Wishes from Our Chefs to You

We’ve mentioned before just how much your fresh faces on our Zoom screens have meant to us these last ten months, but as this never-ending year finally comes to a close, our chefs have some personal words they’d like to share with you, our dear supporters, travelers, and cooking class participants, about what you have meant to THEM.

"Feliz Natal! Thank you so much for being part of my 2020. It was so great to keep meeting people from other countries and to keep gathering people around the table while doing what I love: cooking and teaching! Merry Christmas and a super happy 2021!"

- Chef Ana in Lisbon, Portugal

“Maria and I are both very thankful to TTLT and we feel honored to be part of this group of people. We feel the positive vibes, the warmth of the people and the energy. This has been so important during the hard times we are all facing due to the pandemic. 

When we prepare our table with all the equipment and ingredients for the cooking classes, it feels like a friend is coming for a visit and we are getting ready for a fun evening together.

When we talk about Nonna and our traditions, the histories of our family and the place where we were born and live, we are welcoming you to our world, but we’ve also learned so much from you all too.

Last but not least, the income is significant and since we were not expecting how long the pandemic would last and how our finances would be impacted. Now that we are now counting on the cooking classes for our daily expenses and bills, we feel more comfortable and less uncertain. 

Happy Holidays, everyone. Thank you for being so special!”

- Maria and Domenico in Capri, Italy

“My dear, wonderful, virtual guests, I am so grateful for the fantastic time we have spent together this year!

You have been a ray of sunshine in this grey 2020. It hasn't been an easy year for those who, like me, make a living from tourism. But you saved me from sadness so many times: you were there, waiting for me with all the ingredients ready! Even on the hardest of days, I had to pull myself together, put some makeup on and —what's most important—I had to smile. At the end of every lesson I always felt full of joy, cheerfulness, and gratitude.

2020 has been tough, but it has taught us that humans are amazingly adaptable beings, and that we can hug, smile, cry and share these common human experiences through a screen...What is there for us in 2021? 

I wish you a fantastically festive time, full of food and love (which are the same thing, aren't they?)”

- Gaia in Florence, Italy

“As a cooking instructor, 2020 changed my life completely. But by working with The Table Less Traveled and all of you, I was able to continue my job and my career like before. 

I don't know how to express my appreciation to you all. Thank you so much. 

I hope 2021 will bring us many more fun cooking experiences.”

- Yoko in Osaka, Japan

“As this terrible year comes to an end I like to think that the worst is behind us and that  we are facing a rebirth, a renaissance .... as I live in Florence!

This is my wish for all of you that helped me, especially those I met during the first lockdown when nobody knew how to spend their time. You offered me a way to entertain myself and other people from all over the world.

Happy Holidays!”

- Gloria in Florence, Italy

From our TTLT Family to Yours…
Wishing you a Happy Holidays from all around the world!

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Two Last-Minute Gifts for Foodies & Travel Lovers

72 and half months later, 2020 is finally almost over, but it still looks like we’ll be trying to find ways to entertain ourselves at home for the foreseeable future. Luckily, we have some gift ideas that will ease the pain of still being home for the holidays and beyond, while also being the easiest gift you'll purchase this season, and the most unique experience they'll receive.

If you’re looking for last-minute gift idea for your favorite foodie or travel lovers (or even better: foodie travel lovers!), you’ve found your one stop shop to giving them a taste of the world without leaving their homes this holiday season.

BONUS: Your gift also supports small businesses both in Seattle and across the globe.

#1 Cooking Class Gift Certificate

Rated one of the “Best Food Experiences to Give as Gifts for the Holidays” by Better Homes & Gardens, give a one-of-a-kind gift to the foodie or travel lover on your list with a gift card for one (or two) of our LIVE, virtual cooking classes lead by chefs around the world.

#2 “Taste the World” 3 Class Pass

Give a trip around the world with our “Taste the World” 3 Class Pass! Your loved one will have a chance to learn pasta alongside an Italian nonna in Florence, empanadas from a chef in Peru, sushi with our friends in Japan, or choose from many more authentic and delicious recipes with chefs across the globe.

REG PRICE: $195
NOW FOR A LIMITED TIME: $160
ends 12/23

Make your gifting this holiday season easy, meaningful, and memorable with these great last-minute gift options of fun, socially-distanced experiences that brings connection, culture, and travel straight to their kitchens.

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Meet our Capri Chefs — Domenico & Maria

Domenico & Maria from Capri, italy

Domenico & Maria are BACK on our schedule sharing traditional recipes from the Isle of Capri, where they and their families have lived for as far back as they can trace.

When we visit Capri on our Heart of Italy tours, Domenico guides us around, showing us the best lookouts for the best views of their rugged coastline, and regaling us with stories of the island history, cuisine, and people.

In the first few months of COVID, while on a strict lockdown in their home, he and his wife Maria still regaled us with stories from their island,  sharing Maria’s grandmother’s Caprese recipes and the history behind them — but this time,  from their kitchen table.

Like most locals on the island, both Domenico & Maria work in tourism, which of course, has been hugely affected by COVID.

Usually the tourist season there booms from April to October, fueling the island economy through the rest of the year. This year they were able to open just three short months from July to the beginning of October for other Europeans, but had to make do without their largest group of seasonal tourists: Americans. 

TTLT founder, annie, with domenico in Capri on our heart of italy tour

The Island of Capri from the top

In Italy, Domenico says COVID cases are increasing dramatically, including on Capri. So now he and his wife Maria are staying at home again, taking care of their garden, going for long walks, and visiting family as carefully as they can. They took a break from teaching classes while they were able to work in town, but are looking forward to being back on the schedule sharing Maria's grandmother's recipes with our TTLT community. 

"These classes mean a lot to us," Domenico explains. "They're the closest thing we have to a job right now, and they connect us to the rest of the world. We usually welcome tourists and take care of them during their stay on the island, making sure they feel like locals while they’re here. Now we still do that, just through the computer!”

Join Domenico & Maria as they welcome you to their island and share traditional Caprese cuisine in one of their upcoming cooking classes.

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Check out all of TTLT’s live and interactive community cooking classes.

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5 Reasons to Book a Private Cooking Class as your Virtual Holiday Party for Your Remote Team

Office Holiday Parties will be looking a little different this year — but you can still make yours one to remember

As more companies than ever have resorted to remote work in 2020, the upcoming holiday season is sure to look just as unprecedented as office life in general this year. With virtual holiday parties as the only option for many remote teams, companies will have to find new, creative ways of bringing their employees together to celebrate the hard work they’ve accomplished.

Whether this is your first time planning a virtual holiday party for your remote workers (thanks, COVID), or an event your remote team looks forward to every year, make this year’s company holiday celebration unforgettable by hosting an interactive cooking class with your remote workers near and far. 

We’ve pulled together 5 reasons why you and your team will love an online cooking class as your virtual holiday party.

1. Everyone Gets Involved (AKA not your typical virtual happy hour)

By now, most of us have exhausted the virtual happy hours — staring at each other’s faces with a drink of our choice in hand. With a shared cooking class, your team will have an opportunity to do a creative activity together, even though you’re apart. You’ll step into each other’s kitchens and lives, share the challenge of kneading your pasta dough to the perfect consistency, or artfully folding your empanadas. You’ll get to ask questions, share stories, and get feedback from your chef and teammates.

Not everyone on your team is an experienced cook? Our chefs make sure even the least kitchen-confident participant has the coaching they need for a successful dish and a fun experience.

Employees all across the country making handmade pasta carbonara with Chef Alain in TUscany

2. Enjoy a Unique Experience Together

When was the last time you made authentic, international cuisine taught live by a chef in Portugal, Peru, Italy, Indonesia, or Japan? When was the last time you made authentic, international cuisine taught live by a chef in Portugal, Peru, Italy, Indonesia, or Japan with your coworkers? 

We'll take your team on a culinary adventure through the backstreets of Osaka, the countryside of Tuscany, or high into the Andes Mountains of Peru as we learn to cook traditional recipes — and often personal family recipes — from locals themselves, bringing a bit of the world right into your kitchens to enjoy together.

3. Completely Customizable

Vegetarian, vegan, gluten or dairy free? Not a problem. We can work around any dietary preference to find a recipe that’s just perfect for your group.

Wanting to turn it up a notch? We can add wine tasting, wine pairing, or cocktail making to any class to really get the party started (in the classiest and most-cultured of ways, of course). Make Pisco sours from Peru or Negronis from Florence; try your dish paired with northern and southern Italian wines, or taste the difference between Japanese sakés — all with our chefs to guide you.

4. Stress-Free Set Up

We organize all the details so you can relax, have fun, and focus on cooking and connecting with your team. Once you book, we set up an event page with all the information you and your participants need to prepare for class. As well as all of our classes come not just with a chef, but with a Zoom moderator to field questions, type cooking instructions, and make sure the event and tech runs smoothly.

We can even send Recipe Kits with pre-measured ingredients to all of your participants — including cocktail ingredients and wine (depending on location) — for extra ease and less mess.

5. Employee Gift Add-Ons

We find many companies, especially around the holidays, want to include little gifts for participants in their Recipe Kits. You can choose from a variety of items such as cocktail shakers, aprons, tumblers, t-shirts, kitchen items and more, branded with your company’s logo for an extra special holiday surprise.

Just because your team will have to party remotely, doesn’t mean you can’t throw an incredible virtual holiday party that they’ll be sure to love. Let us help you make this end-of-year celebration extra special and extra memorable.

Learn more about our Team-Building Cooking Classes and book yours today.

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Chefs from Around the World — Meet Tomoko in Osaka, Japan

Tomoko in japan

On our Inside Japan Tour, we take our travelers to Tomoko's small boutique food store in Osaka where she hosts intimate Japanese cuisine cooking experiences. In the three years since she started her small business, she’s cooked with over 2000 guests from over 47 countries.

It was in Tomoko’s shop that TTLT founder, Annie, first learned how to make udon noodles — those round, chewy Japanese noodles that are everywhere in Japan.

Annie says, “Tomoko patiently walked me through the many different variations of udon noodles (who knew there were so many!). It was one of my favorite dishes of my childhood — reminding me of the times my dad would take me to work with him once a year and always treat me to a bowl of tempura udon for lunch.”

Annie & Tomoko with the finished udon noodles waiting to be boiled.

Stepping on the tough udon dough to activate the gluten.

“I was completely shocked when Tomoko showed me the secret to their perfect, chew consistency was actually STEPPING on the noodles — in a clean, sanitary way, of course — using plastic bags to wrap the flour & water concoction multiple times before using your feet to slowly build the gluten chains that bring the dough to the perfect bouncy consistency.

“In September that year, I returned to Osaka and to Tomoko's small shop with a group of eight travelers. In pairs, we learned how to make those same noodles, lightly stepping back and forth on our dough, and then dining on the fruits of our labor.”

Travelers on our Inside Japan Tour with Tomoko & Annie in Tomoko’s shop in Osaka.

Because Tomoko’s business works mostly with tourists, on March 16, 2020, everything came to a frozen halt when COVID-19 hit. No more groups, no more in-person anything. 

Tomoko says teaching online classes with us at The Table Less Traveled during the pandemic has not only been about getting a helpful form of income during this difficult time, but she was also thrilled she could continue, as she says, “enjoying the communication with overseas guests, because I love international exchange.”

One particular thing she’s found interesting working with us, has been collaborating on developing new recipes for our classes, as she’s been able to gain insight into the favorite and popular Japanese dishes in the U.S.

Tomoko’s passion for sharing culture and cuisine is infused in all her classes as she goes above and beyond to fill the time with not only the recipe you plan on making, but with cultural and historical information that make you feel like you’ve just taken a quick immersive trip to Japan for a delicious meal. 

If you’d like to meet Tomoko and practice making Japanese goodies in your own home, take a look at her upcoming classes below! And if you have any Japanese dishes you’d like to see on our schedule — leave us a comment!

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Check out all of TTLT’s live and interactive community cooking classes.

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Chefs from Around the World — Meet Yoko in Osaka, Japan

In Yoko’s normal life, she has her own cooking school (IG: @osaka_kitchen) where she teaches Japanese cooking classes, and a tour company (IG: @beyondfoodietours) where she give food tours around the food-heaven city of Osaka, Japan. 

We met Yoko through our Osaka friend Tomoko, whom we visit on our Inside Japan Tour.

Like most of our chefs, she works heavily in tourism.

She says that since COVID, “the jobs related to tourists disappeared completely”. But Yoko was able to quickly and adeptly switch to online cooking classes and online English teaching.

The luckiest thing, she says, is that she was also offered a job translating a cookbook, so now she keeps as busy as she can between those three jobs.

Teaching classes with us has given her a good opportunity to continue practicing her English and keep her motivated to try new recipes to add to the menu.

But the best part of our classes are that, “Talking and cooking with someone who is not in Japan is really fun. Also it makes me proud to see the people who have never though about making sushi leave with confidence after my class!”

Meet Yoko for yourself in one of her upcoming classes!

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Check out all of TTLT’s live and interactive community cooking classes.

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Chefs from Around the World — Meet Chef Ana in Lisbon

Chef ana in portugal

Most of our chefs for our classes are friends and business partners we visit when we take our small-group tours to Italy, Peru, Malaysia, and Japan. So not only is Portugal a new country for us to “visit” virtually, but Chef Ana is a new friend and connection we’ve made during (and because of) the pandemic. 

Chef Ana usually keeps herself busy running her own Lisbon Cooking Academy in… you guessed it, Lisbon, Portugal where she teaches cooking classes and hosts team-building cooking classes for work groups.

Since she usually works with travelers and large groups, once COVID hit, she suddenly had no customers. Of course it’s been stressful — as it has for small business owners all of the world — but Ana’s stayed positive; she says the down time has given her space to rethink her life and her business and has forced her to make changes she wouldn’t have made otherwise.

After finding our cooking classes online, she connected with Annie who got her set up to teach classes with us, which in turn, gave Chef Ana the courage to switch the classes at her cooking academy to be virtual.

chef ana at her cooking school in lisbon

chef ana teaching at her cooking school in lisbon

Chef Ana has been wow-ing us with her recipe for the most iconic Portuguese dessert, Pastel de Nata. These small, creamy custard tarts have notes of cinnamon, vanilla, and lemon — and lemme tell ya, they are dangerously delicious!

What are Pastel de Nata?

If you've spent any time in Portugal, you'll have met and become very well aquatinted with Pastel de Nata.

These little sweet, flaky, and incredibly addicting tarts can be found in every window and street corner and are devoured for breakfast, mid-morning snacks, and after lunch and dinner treats — basically at anytime you feel a craving (which will be constantly after that first bite — just be warned)!

Not only are they pretty much the most amazing thing you could put into your mouth, but they also come with an interesting history.

In 18th century Portugal, nuns used egg whites to starch their habits, leaving a lot of leftover egg yolks.

To make use of all those extra yolks, monks in the Jerónimos Monastery outside of Lisbon began experimenting with them, baking them into these tasty little tarts, and eventually ended up selling their creations in a small shop when the monasteries in Portugal were shut down for a time.

Today, that original recipe is still alive, SUPER SECRET, and the those special tarts — called pastéis de Belém — are still being sold not far from the monastery where they were created.

Pastel de nata

You may not be getting that "original" recipe from Chef Ana (even those who work at the shop don’t know the recipe in its entirety to prevent it being shared!) — but OH MAN, are her tarts still shockingly tasty!


PRO TIP: Usually when you make puff pastry, you use butter, but because we won’t have time in class to properly cool the butter in the fridge between each of the layers, make sure you pick up some margarine as the recipe calls for and be sure to keep it cold before class!

Puff pastry can seem intimidating, but Chef Ana teaches you all the tricks to make it as easy as possible, so you’ll feel like a pretty accomplished baker by the end.

Meet Chef Ana for yourself and try your own hand at puff pastry and Pastel de Nata with one of her upcoming classes!

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Check out all of TTLT’s live and interactive community cooking classes.

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Chefs from Around the World — Meet Chef Alain in Tuscany

On our Heart of Italy Tour, one of our highlights is spending an afternoon with Chef Alain in a beautiful villa in the Tuscan countryside learning his tricks to making different types of authentic handmade pasta, sauces, appetizers, and  — our favorite — tiramisu.

We roll and cut the pasta dough, simmer fragrant tomato and meat sauces on the stove, and wait impatiently for our tiramisu to set in the fridge. By the time we’re finished, Chef Alain is everyone’s new best friend, we’re full to the BRIM, and are ready to take home our new culinary skills and Italian recipes to impress friends and family.

Pasta class in Italy with Chef Alain on our Heart of Italy Tour

In Chef Alain’s normal life, he’s an executive chef in a newly-opened restaurant in his hometown in Tuscany. The restaurant had been open for one month before Italy went on complete lockdown, and he had been super busy with the restaurant opening: testing and refining the menu, and training employees.

“COVID affected my professional life in the most brutal way,” he says. “All restaurants and bars were shut down out of the blue. Without any warning, we were asked to close immediately and stay home. Being forced home against our will, without being allowed to leave…it was a complete loss of freedom.” 

Despite having no way to work or earn income, he stayed positive and took advantage of the situation as much as possible. “I spent all of my time playing with my 2-year-old daughter, Blue, gardening, reading books—all things that I normally do when on holiday. And that’s the secret,” he continues. “I decided to look at this time as an extra holiday. This way my mood has always been up. When I start work again, I won't have all of this time to spend with Blue, so trying to remember to enjoy every second.”

What Chef Alain cooking classes look like now

He had never taught online cooking classes before, but he immediately came on board when Annie approached him. He says, “Joining the cooking classes for me was more than just having a job with which I could sustain my family, but it also gave me the things I love the most: being with people and cooking.”

And we’re always happy to see Chef Alain’s smiling face on the other side of our Zoom— sometimes we even get to see glimpses of his thriving herb garden out back, or his two pups always circling his feet as he teaches, waiting for snacks to fall.

He’s sure to remind us that no matter what happens in class, “it’s only pasta.”

Check out his upcoming classes and save your spot with him while you can!

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Check out all of TTLT’s live and interactive community cooking classes.

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Chefs from Around the World — Meet Marika on the Amalfi Coast

Dining on Marika’s Patio with our Heart of Italy Tour

Dining on Marika’s Patio with our Heart of Italy Tour

We’ve been meeting Marika at her home — high above the coast of the enchanting town of Positano — for homemade Italian meals with ingredients fresh from her garden for years now on our Heart of Italy tours.

We feast on her stunning back patio overlooking the Mediterranean, and after the meal, we help her in the kitchen making biscotti or other Italian treats — she gives instructions, we do the work of adding the ingredients and shaping the dough while she tells us stories about living in a coastal Italian town and running her small convenience shop.

In Marika’s normal, pre-COVID life, she and her brother own a small convenience shop where they sell a bit of everything. The shop was completely closed during the lockdown in Italy for months, halting their income entirely. Now, they’re able to open for a bit on the weekend when a few tourists trickle into town, but during the rest of the week, Positano feels like a ghost town.

Marika says that when lockdown hit, “the quarantine closed me off at home with two teenage daughters busy studying, and left me very nervous.”

She explains how she has spent her time during the lockdown: “I cleaned and cleaned the house, kneaded bread, pizza, and sweets. Fortunately, I have a large flower garden and an even larger vegetable garden, so I work a lot there between flowers and vegetables to keep busy.”

Marika’s garden & patio

The view of Positano from Marika’s patio

When we called and asked if she would be interested in hosting cooking classes via Zoom, she immediately jumped at the chance, even though it was a brand new experience for her. She says, “The cooking classes with The Table Less Traveled have given me the opportunity to continue sharing two passions I love: food and hosting people in my home. It is just a different way of being together now.”

After receiving her share of just three pizza classes that she taught in March, when we first launched, she told us it was the amount she and her brother would have made in TWO WEEKS of working every day at the store.

Her brother is expecting his first child this year, so they were extra nervous about not having money coming in right now. The contributions from our classes have given Marika’s family a bit of peace of mind during a scary time.

If you’re wanting to hang out with Marika, join us in one of her upcoming classes!

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Check out all of TTLT’s live and interactive community cooking classes.

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Creative Virtual Team Building for Remote Workers: Live Cooking Classes with Chefs Around the World

Since this last March, more teams than ever across the globe have been adjusting to remote working, prompting Time magazine’s apt labeling of the coronavirus outbreak as “the world’s largest work-from-home experiment.” 

While that experiment now continues into July (with little end in sight), companies such as Facebook, Twitter, Nationwide Insurance and more are already promising to continue work-from-home privileges even after COVID-19 is just a (bad) memory of the past. 

However, though business continues as usual, productivity remains as high as ever, and lower real estate costs are quite attractive, removing the “social” aspect of work life is taking its toll on employees. 

A survey by Slack shows that “nearly half of newly remote workers say that working from home has negatively affected their sense of belonging”, and The New York Times magazine reports that “isolation...has been a chief complaint that arises in all research on remote work.”

As working from home becomes the norm in “office” life, employers will need more than just the occasional everyone-grab-a-drink Zoom happy hour to keep office morale and company culture on an upward trajectory. 

During this shift to remote work, one way to connect with your team, share a fun experience together, and bridge the divide that comes from working at home, is with a Private Online Cooking Class as a virtual team-building activity.

A New Type of Team Building: Human Ventures’ Experience Cooking Together

Human Ventures in their private pasta class with chef alain in tuscany

After taking one of our Online Cooking Classes with her boyfriend over a weekend, Danielle Miller posed the idea of a private homemade pasta class as a team-building activity to her New York City-based company, Human Ventures.

“It felt like a great option to do something new together. No matter where people's culinary level is, a private class is a perfect option.” she explained. 

On the day of the class, her teammates logged on from their home kitchens. Seeing a few colleagues in aprons, an unidentified shout goes out, “ah, aprons, guys!” and multiple faces disappear from screens and reappear donning a domestic accessory that would rarely (if ever) have made an appearance in the office.

The group ranged in cooking abilities and experience, but each person followed the steps Chef Alain gave to making pasta dough and homemade tomato sauce with enthusiasm. “Alain was really good at explaining the steps and showing what he is doing while explaining different things. For example, I now know the trick to not crying when I chop onions!” says Danielle.

Chef Alain, leading the class from his home kitchen in Tuscany, continued to remind the group as they went along that no matter what happens in class, “it’s only pasta.”

“I think it unconsciously became a slight competition of who had the better looking pasta, whose was thinner/longer,” Danielle laughs. “It was unintentional, but became a great aspect of the class. That might just be our team since it was not a competitive class at all, it was very friendly and open...It's hard being apart from everyone, but this really helped to feel like we were together.”

homemade pasta with chef alain

homemade cherry tomato pasta sauce with chef alain

At one point, Chef Alain explains the proper chef technique for gripping vegetables while chopping as making a “tiger claw” with your hand. Immediately multiple “tiger claws” and barred teeth fill the screens as the team laughs and claws at each other.

Forbes supports team-building activities that get participants interacting in new ways, as one article explains, “The most successful, memorable team-building events are ones that don’t feel like a day at the office...Spending time together, sharing an experience or working towards a common goal allows bonding to happen more organically and far more effectively [than activities with overt leadership lessons].”

Danielle mentions how the cooking class helped her remote team feel more close and connected, especially during the uncertainty of the global pandemic. “It's such a weird time in the world but somehow doing the same thing at the same time was really comforting and felt like we were all together.” The bonding effects were present during other work hours as well: “It was also fun to join a meeting after the weekend and our CEO asks ‘did anyone else make more of that pasta, or was it just me?!’”  

The other great thing Danielle found out about taking an online cooking class as a team-building activity? Easy coordination. “I think the nicest part (for me) was having The Table Less Traveled plan and handle all the logistics. It allowed for everyone to just show up with their ingredients and enjoy!”

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If you’re interested in booking a private cooking class for your team, fill out an inquiry form or email us to set up a time and class that works for you.

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Chefs from Around the World — Meet our Florentine Friend, Gaia

Typically when we see our friend Gaia, we spend our time together traipsing after her and her bouncing hair through the narrow side streets of her hometown, Florence—weaving in and out of back-alley artisan shops and hole-in-the wall eateries.

She expertly navigates the city with us in tow, pointing out bits of architecture and art that might otherwise have gone unnoticed, explaining the hundreds-of-years-old history behind the buildings, or her personal connection to the shop owners. Her pride and love for her city and country radiates from her.

When the lockdown went into place in Tuscany, Gaia was out of Florence visiting her parents in a different part of the region. She told us she only had one pair of jeans, a dress, and a couple tops she brought with her for what she assumed to be a quick trip, but ended up being there for almost two months!

Still, she looked radiant as usual on our first class with her as she taught us to make traditional Florentine Gnudi from her family's kitchen. She clasped her hands together in excitement at the end as the participants began raving over how good the dish tasted.

We asked her to explain how COVID has affected her daily life. She replied, “’Affected’ is too bland as a word to describe it.  From one day to another I didn't have a job or a life anymore.

I switched from the Ice Age squirrel (running around the town on my bicycle to negotiate prices and conditions with restaurants and bars, tasting food, leading tours, etc.) to having absolutely nothing to do.

Suddenly, I was unemployed and at home all day; I had to suspend my mortgage, and my loans.

These cooking classes are what took me out of a bubble of sadness and apathy and gave me new energy. When Annie contacted me, she literally saved me from being just a step away from depression.

She gave me a reason to wake up in the morning. I feel like I am part of something new and exciting ... I feel connected to the participants as well as the fantastic TTLT team.”

But beyond giving Gaia a reason to get up, these classes have greatly impacted her financially while being out of work. “Money-wise these contributions are also a huge help,” She says. “I am experiencing a difficult time...my unemployment voucher hasn't arrived yet and I am now on my third month out of employment, but the first month of cooking classes have already paid for 1 month of mortgage!”

Gaia teaches us a range of classes focused on traditional Tuscan and Florentine favorites. Check out some of her upcoming classes below and sign up to meet her yourself!

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Check out all of TTLT’s live and interactive community cooking classes.

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Team-Building in Quarantine? Try an Interactive Cooking Class with Chefs Around the World

By now, most of us have adjusted to working remotely in the time of COVID.

We’ve mastered share screen on Zoom, learned to snack while on mute, and figured out how to still get work done despite the at-home distractions, but what’s truly missing is the team-like camaraderie and social connection that come from being in a shared workspace with coworkers.

Though continuing to promote company culture can be difficult to navigate when employees are remote, the current global crisis presents one of the most important times to encourage a safe, relaxed space for workers to unwind, bond, and continue connecting through the power of shared experiences.

In a time of social isolation, we’re seeing more and more companies interested in booking our Online Cooking Classes as a virtual team-building activity. These private, interactive classes give teams the opportunity and space to connect in a non-work setting, share a fun experience, and try something new together — even if it’s from the safety of your own kitchens.

Team-Building During COVID: Bridging the Divide in Work From Home

Equinox Business Law Group, a law firm based in Bellevue, Washington, joined us for a private asparagus risotto class taught by Gaia in Florence. 

CEO & Managing Attorney, Michelle Bomberger says she was looking for an activity that would bridge the divide that comes with working from home. “Our team is accustomed to being in the office together, collaborating and sharing our work and personal activities,” she says. “Working remotely really limits the amount of ‘fun’ time, and this class provided some time to try something new together.”

Ingredients photographed by participant, Ashley Wong

Bomberger requested a new recipe specifically for her private class, one that could be made gluten and dairy free, to accommodate for the dietary restrictions in their group. Gaia found the substitutions that would still make this recipe a success even without the dairy that usually goes into the dish. 

The number one rule to cooking risotto? “Never leave the risotto alone,” Gaia instructed. “This risotto is your best friend now.”

Their hard work paid off in the end: “The finished product was delicious — definitely my favorite part!” Bomberger says, “Both experienced and inexperienced cooks in the group raved about how unique the experience was — having a chef who was actually in Italy teaching the class!” 

Finished product photographed by participant, Ashley Wong

During introductions, many from the group admitted to not cooking on their own much, but they followed along as Gaia gave directions, and looked pretty proud of the final result. 

A Forbes article about the importance of team building encourages trying activities beyond a company picnic or virtual happy hour, ones that include some form of learning and challenge to maximize growth and bonding: “It turns out that happiness and learning are tied very closely together. Trying new things with your staff can generate good vibes among employees, which in turn benefits the business itself. Choosing something unique and slightly outside of people’s comfort zones can encourage them to come together in new ways.”

Bomberger and her team found this to be true for themselves, “The fact that each person came to the class with some apprehension, not knowing exactly what to expect, made it a great team-building experience,” says Bomberger. “It gave us an opportunity to all share a kitchen together (but apart) and with the added benefit of having a greater community impact.”

Virtual Team-Building that Gives Back

The greater community impact Bomberger mentions is the support for the chefs of our classes. For each class, our chefs receive 50% of the proceeds that have been instrumental in getting them through a difficult time when they have been unable to work due to quarantine, some without knowledge of when they may receive a paycheck again.

In a time of social distancing and isolation, virtual team-building can make a big difference for your remote office culture, but also has the potential to make a difference to those suffering the effects of COVID-19 on their communities.

Bomberger and her team agree, “It was truly rewarding for us to share this experience together as a team during this time.”

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If you’re interested in booking a private cooking class for your team, fill out an inquiry form or email us to set up a time and class that works for you.

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