Team-Building

Use our cookery school for a team-building activity your team will never forget.  Time in our kitchens is sociable, collaborative and fun - learn new skills, cook and taste with our chefs or prepare a feast you can all enjoy and dine on together.

Thyme at Southrop Manor's team-building days provide an opportunity for people to work in pairs as well as competitively in groups.  Performing in the demanding, engaging environment of a kitchen, with other people, and with time constraints, is a powerful medium for team building and bonding, and demonstrating how co-operation and team work create more motivated, more efficient and high-performing teams. 

The days are all structured to develop a number of different areas: collaboration, communication, creativity, innovation, project planning & delivery, time management, creative problem solving, different personality & work styles, team strengths & weaknesses, team stages of development and so forth.  The aim is to meet the specific needs and desired outcomes of each individual team and provide bespoke solutions as required. 

FACILITIES
Thyme at Southrop Manor offers unrivalled facilities – the superbly designed bulthaup kitchens with their two large cooking islands lend themselves perfectly to two teams working in competition to achieve certain challenging goals; the stunning Tithe Barn provides a perfect venue for a summing up meeting, presentation ceremony and  luxurious meal.  The setting on the Southrop Manor Estate, with its kitchen gardens, water meadows, crystal-clear streams and surrounding farmland, provides a beautiful background to the day, far from the office and work environment. 
Our Balcony Meeting Room is perfect for a strategy meeting - or book one of the cottages and hold your meeting family-style, around the kitchen table.

YOUR TEAM'S CHALLENGE: 
• Working in pairs from highly detailed recipes but with no support from our chefs, your staff will discover the importance of learning together, following instructions and being mutually supportive to achieve a common goal. 
•Then, working in two competitive teams, fully supported by our highly professional staff, your teams will have to prepare a full menu together, with limited time to plan, source, cook and present the meal. 

WHAT IS INCLUDED
•Support for each team from highly qualified chefs and teachers
•Welcome refreshments, morning coffee and afternoon tea
•Two course lunch with drinks
•Exclusive venue hire, including the Tithe Barn, the Balcony rooms and kitchens
•AV equipment, including WIFI, Multi-channel amplifier/mixer, Blueray/DVD, Plasma screens with HD presentation, Sonos music system, Wireless tie clip microphones
•Recipes and a comprehensive information folder
 

OPTIONAL EXTRAS
When appropriate, we can integrate additional and optional “foodie” activities into the Corporate Team-Building Days. These include: hunting, fishing, foraging, visiting local farms, food markets and specialist stores, tasting and demonstrations (local Gloucestershire produce, cheese, wine, olive oil etc), and hands-on master classes with well-known chefs and experts.

EQUIPMENT
The equipment at Thyme is the very best there is. The kitchens have been designed in partnership with Bulthaup, specifically for competing teams and working in pairs. The ovens are by Wolf and all the fridges are all by Sub-Zero. Pans are from Fissler, the extensive equipment is from Henckel, including the knives.

INGREDIENTS
In keeping with Thyme’s ethos, all ingredients are sourced with care. Class participants will work with fresh, seasonal and often locally distinct and traditional produce from small family farms and artisans. In addition, an abundance of wild food can be found growing on and surrounding the estate, including wild garlic, elderflower, watercress and mushrooms.

Testimonial for a bespoke team-building day: 
"Where can we begin to thank you for providing us all with such an exciting and constructive day, in the most beautiful cooking facilities in the UK and under the watchful eye (with a twinkle!) from an excellent instructor and top chef Daryll Taylor. The way the day was organised by Thyme at Southrop can only be captured in one word; OUTSTANDING!"  (G K-S)

 For enquiries, please contact us or call us on 01367 850174.