Are you looking for a corporate away day that goes beyond the usual personality tests and escape rooms?
Check out Breaking Bread – our hands-on baking team building experience. We pair the art of making bread from scratch with expert business facilitation to help your team connect, communicate, and navigate challenges together. The analogy of flour, water, salt and yeast transforming into bread provokes insightful conversations about team development.
The Fresh Tracks difference: More than just a cooking class
Most cooking team building activities focus solely on following a recipe. While you will absolutely learn how to mix, knead and knock back dough, our core focus is on what happens while the dough proves.
During the natural downtimes of the baking process, our experienced business facilitators step in. We use this time for structured discussions on topics such as transformational change, resilience and team development.
By the time you sit down to break bread together, your team won’t just have a warm loaf to share; they will have fresh insights into how they collaborate, communicate, and solve problems.
Key details & logistics
- Bread making is a tactile, physical process, requiring accuracy, energy and patience.
- The process incorporates the intense activity of kneading alongside periods of rest while the dough proves
- While the dough proves we facilitate group discussions on team work and change
- Suits groups from 6 to 12
- Typically a 3 hour activity, with the option to extend
- Our equipment is portable and so the activity can take place in a meeting room or outdoors, for example, in our Hertfordshire Farmhouse
The business benefits of baking together
By stepping out of the office and into the kitchen, your team will return to work having developed:
- Enhanced cross-functional communication: Breaking down silos through shared tasks
- Adaptability and resilience: Learning to pivot when things don’t go exactly to plan – a common occurrence in both baking and business
- Stronger team dynamics: A deeper understanding of individual working styles and how they complement each other
What to expect: A sample format
Every Breaking Bread event is customised to your specific business goals. Here is an example of what to expect in a standard half-day activity:
10.00 am – We kick off with a warm welcome and our ‘What’s my loaf?’ icebreaker in which participants select their favourite bread style and say why it resonates. For example ‘French Baguettes remind me of childhood holidays.’ Teams are briefed on the recipes, the goals for the day, and how we will work together in the kitchen
10.30 am – Teams dive into the first stages of baking, focusing on collaboration and dividing tasks to mix and knead their dough
11.00 – While the dough proves, our expert facilitators explore parallels between the kitchen and the workplace
11.30 am – The dough is ‘knocked back’ and allowed to rest before baking
12.30 pm – Warm fresh loaves are removed from the oven, and your team sits down to enjoy their lunch
