When groups book a dinner at the Interactive Chef's Table at Scottsdale, AZ's CopperWynd Resort & Club, they come ready to get their hands dirty.
"It's a two-part event: They help cook in the afternoon, and then have dinner at night," says Executive Chef Tom Pristash, adding that the ideally sized group would include 20 people. "That way, more people can get their hands into what's going on."
Say, for example, a group of 20 opts for a four-course meal: an appetizer, salad, entree, and dessert. The group divides into four teams of five, and each team will prepare and plate one of the courses. Chef Pristash spends the afternoon working with each team, teaching kitchen skills where necessary. "I teach food safety and sanitation, and how food should be handled, and then I also go into the culinary aspect and discuss what goes through our minds when we are planning a menuwhy this course and then the next one, and why that progression makes sense," he says.
To minimize the risk of injury, Chef Pristash keeps the knife-work to a minimum and doesn't ask participants to work with hot oil or other potentially dangerous ingredients. But blenders and similar appliances are still part of the equation: "You do have to step out of your comfort zone a little bitthat's the only way to learn," he says.
While Chef Pristash does give participants a tour of his kitchenthe helm of the AAA Four-Diamond Alchemy restaurant on sitemost of the group's cooking takes place in a mock kitchen he sets up in a private banquet room. There, each team has its own workstation, with all the necessary tools and ingredients.
"If the first course is macadamia-encrusted shrimp, we'll have a small food processor there for them to use to grind the nuts and make the breading. If we're serving 40 shrimp that night, I'll have them make a half-gallon of the breading. Then I'll have them soak the shrimp in the coconut milk," he says. "That way, they've done a lot of the prep-work themselves. They're eating what they prepared."
Chef Pristash's favorite part of the event is sharing his passion for food with his guests. "If something I taught or showed them makes them more successful when they're cooking back at home, then that's a big payoff." And that spirit of success, Chef Pristash says, extends beyond the kitchen.
"At the end of the night, everyone's happy and boasting about the course they prepared. There's a real group sense of pride. In the afternoon, they worked as separate teams, but in the end, all the different components—and coursescome together to make the meal a success. And that's a microcosm of what they, as colleagues, should be doing every day."
GROUP COOK
CopperWynd Resort & Club
Scottsdale, AZ
Ideal Group Size:
20 people
Cost per person:
starts at $95
Originally published June 01, 2007
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