Over the past two weeks, My Kitchen Escapades hosted two Breaking Bread Leadership Challenges.   One was with the Purdue University Center for Food and Agricultural Business and the other for the Land O’Lakes Co-op Leadership Program.  I always look forward to facilitating these events because it combines my two loves:  food and teaching.  Not to mention, they are just a blast!

The Breaking Bread Leadership Challenge is a unique and memorable leadership development tool my husband and I created a few years ago.  We’ve worked with varied groups in different settings but the end result is always the same:  an entertaining and engaging evening that lays the groundwork for teams, leaders and co-workers to build relationships of trust in an intimate, but not intimidating, setting.

There are many different twists and turns that make the challenge successful but the key factor is the FOOD!  There is something powerful we tap into during the process of preparing, cooking and eating a meal together.  The powerful connections formed in this Breaking Bread environment are unique and the effect is enduring.

Throughout the event, we create some difficult road blocks for each team to overcome but they continually amaze us with their ability to create rock star food despite their limited circumstances.  Each team is judged by a very elite panel of judges….well, maybe not quite elite but at least really hungry.  They are judged on taste, presentation and the creativity of their dish.  Sometimes there is a very clear winner and other times it is a heated and vigorous debate to pick just one.

The winners from our latest two groups were both desserts:  S’mores Salad and Dessert Pizza.   You all know how obsessed I am with desserts but I want to promise you that  I was not the only one voting!

The S’mores Salad (as if the word salad makes it healthier) was created by one of our Purdue teams this past week.  They made it by layering buttered graham cracker crumbs on the bottom, then some milk chocolate bars, toasted marshmallows, more graham cracker crumbs, whip cream and then a garnish of chocolate and raspberries.  It was killer!

The Dessert Pizza (later titled Cajun Dessert Pizza because it was a bit “blackened” on the bottom…) was whipped up by one of our Land O’Lakes teams last week.  It used prepackaged sugar cookie dough baked in a pizza pan, then topped with a mixture of cream cheese, sugar, and sour cream.  On top of that they made a beautiful design of fresh fruit and graham cracker crumbs.  As long as you stayed away from the extra done parts, it was really amazing

       Each winning team was crowned with their coveted Whisky Award and promised a featured post on here on My Kitchen Escapades.  Cheers for all my hard working teams over the past two weeks and I am especially grateful because I didn’t have to make a single dish.  I just got to enjoy all the wonderful dishes!  Everything tastes better when someone else is cooking for you, right?