Baton Rouge Team Building Events: Why You Should Consider a Cooking Class for Your Next Outing

Charlie Ruffolo • January 7, 2021

There are many different team building options, like painting, completing a ropes course, even bowling, and each has their own unique benefits. However, taking a culinary class offers some distinct advantages. This is an activity that everyone can participate in and learn from. Whether you consider yourself a gourmet chef, or barely know how to use a microwave, you can enjoy yourself in a cooking class. Here are a few of the benefits that come along with a team building cooking class.


Identify New Talents and Strengths in a Team Building Cooking Class


Recognizing an individual’s strength in your office setting is one thing, but a change of scenery can provide a different vantage point. The kitchen promotes and magnifies many different skill sets like delegation, communication, and organization. Witnessing your team perform in different roles can change your perspective on how your people operate. 


Use a Culinary Class to Improve Camaraderie


A cooking class allows your group to decide and delegate the tasks that need to be done to complete the meal. This opportunity is ideal for building camaraderie as everyone is able to utilize their strengths and improve interpersonal relationships.


Raise Self Esteem with a Team Building Culinary Class


This experience is perfect for building self-confidence. No matter how much or how little you know, you’ll leave with new skills. Also, the team work involved in preparing each course creates a great environment for personalities of all types to participate together. 


Enhance Communication Skills During a Team Building Cooking Class


There are communication barriers in every organization. Shyness and a lack of interaction are common factors in communication shortcomings; cooking classes provide the opportunity for all types of personalities to speak, share, and instruct with one another.

 

When the time comes to plan your next team building excursion, the experts at Louisiana Culinary Institute are ready for you. Simply submit a request and the experienced staff at LCI will begin put an event together for you based on location, date, and group size. They customize an outing for you with a variety of venue and menu options. 


SCHEDULE
By Charlie Ruffolo March 25, 2026
Some people know from childhood exactly where they're headed. Ben Messina took a different route. He started college as a music major, took a gap year to find his footing, and leaned on his brother's encouragement before landing exactly where he was always meant to be: a professional kitchen . Now a senior in the Savory program at Louisiana Culinary Institute (LCI) in Baton Rouge, Ben is weeks away from graduating in May 2026. He arrived at LCI with a love of cooking and a family connection to food. He's leaving with a world-class culinary foundation, a mentor who pushed him to be his best, and a dream of opening multiple restaurants of his own one day. His story is proof that the path to a culinary career doesn't have to be a straight line. Is It Too Late to Change Careers and Go to Culinary School? For Ben, food has always been part of the family fabric. Growing up in Baton Rouge, he spent time in the kitchen with his grandmother, learning to make snickerdoodles as a kid. Those early memories planted a seed. But Ben initially followed a different passion. He'd played trumpet and piano since a young age, so he enrolled at Southeastern Louisiana University to study music. It wasn't long before the questions started creeping in: "What am I actually going to do with a music degree?" He took a gap year to figure it out. And the answer, when it came, was simple: go back to his other love. Cooking. His brother, who owns a food truck, had been encouraging him to consider culinary school. More specifically, he encouraged Ben to look at LCI. And then, without warning, he signed him up for a campus tour. 
culinary leadership skills
By Charlie Ruffolo February 26, 2026
Being a great cook isn’t enough. Explore how LCI develops culinary leadership skills that prepare students for real-world kitchen management and career growth.
More Posts