A meta-analysis of data from 103 studies provides the strongest scientific evidence to date that team building can have measurable, positive effects on team performance. The original studies, conducted between 1950 and 2007 showed results that were weak or inconsistent. However, the 2009 study by...
Easter in South America, known as Santa Semana, is a very big deal. Most countries on the continent are predominantly Catholic, so it’s a great time to travel if you want to get caught up in the spirit of the season. Festivals are so prolific...
We are celebrating Australian Pear month, so we would like to share with you this delicious, simple recipe. It's one of our most popular salads in our corporate cookery classes for groups and perfect freshness and zest to balance out any meal. With the lushness...
I was just reading this article by Daniel Goleman, of Emotional Intelligence fame, about extending your ‘Aha!’ moments. In a brief explanation of brain functioning, Goleman pin-points the region of the brain where these ‘moments’ occur – the same place responsible for interpretation of symbolic...
When I first came to Australia and started exploring the local offerings of Mexican food - I was gob-smacked when I saw a creamy, pale green concoction being flogged as "guacamole". Surely, I thought, the lovely avocados in Australia wouldn't yield such a pasty mush...
I love doing brunch. At my first restaurant, the Back Porch Café in the USA, we wouldn't let people in the door unless they wore their favourite hat. The second restaurant, Blue Moon was more of "suck in your cheeks" type of restaurant brunch, it was...
Following on our trip to Malaysia in preparation for a possible food tour with the talented Wanitha Tanasingam as our guide, I thought it would be appropriate to give you the recipe for a signature dish from Penang...
Many years ago, in a review of our restaurant, Rattlesnake Grill, the Sydney Morning Herald headline for the article was "Howling at the Moon Pie". The food critic, Terry Durack, called our Moon Pie "the world's first self-perpetuating dessert" noting that the ice cream just...
So often I’ve heard from people (men and women) “I’d love to do one of your team building cooking classes for my company, but it’s mostly blokes and they wouldn’t like it.” Now I can’t know every team, but I still think that excuse just...
In our cooking team building events one of the objectives is often that the team needs to interact and actually speak to each other more to form more long lasting business and personal relationships and get their messages across clearly. I reckon “The Company that...