In the late 1990s, SOLIDleaders invented the “Kitchen Challenge” team-building event. Since then, it has become a national phenomenon and a highly respected venue for building stronger teams.

How It Got Started

Our firm was known for our team-building expertise. After facilitating executive retreats or offsite planning meetings, we would take our teams “out to dinner,” or at least that’s what we would tell them. Instead, we would delight them by showing up at a cooking school, where we had rented the kitchen and a chef for a “surprise team challenge.”

What Happened?

Our group had to put together a three-course meal, without any guidance, while sorting through a pile of food in the center of the kitchen. The chef was simply there to help with use of equipment. These turned out to be transformational events that teams still talk about decades later. Teamwork was positively impacted, deeper relationships formed, and as teams enjoyed the meals they prepared, the processing of “what we learned about ourselves” was always positive and priceless.

What Is the Offering?

Today, we do these kitchen challenges in estates we own and operate on Lake Travis, just 25 minutes from either downtown Austin, Texas or Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. These custom-tailored, newly remodeled homes have perfectly sized kitchens to give your team the challenge needed, and the meeting and sleeping accommodations to make housing a whole team practical and economical. It is fun, fast, and exciting as you and your team race the clock in preparing a delicious meal. SOLID’s Steel-on-Steel Kitchen Challenge pits your team against the clock. Assisted by a world-class chef (optional) in a gourmet kitchen stocked with plenty of surprises, you will race to produce a delicious gourmet meal, inviting communication, cooperation and cohesiveness. Your team will never be the same! You will have one and a half hours to produce a meal your entire team will enjoy together. Ingredients are provided in large quantities without any recipes or instructions. Upon completion, your group can judge its own meal, or we can supply judges—your choice. Challenges arise immediately. Who does what? What needs to be done first? Who will do the actual cooking? After stretching your team to the max, a three-course meal will emerge from the chaos. All this occurs as you are enjoying hors d’oeuvres and fine wine (recommended but not necessary.) This is team building at its finest! Companies rent one of our Lake Travis homes for team building, hosting an offsite strategic or operational planning session. Each member will have their own bed in one of our seven- to nine-bedroom homes. Just housing everyone together under one roof builds stronger teams. Throw in a Steel-on-Steel Kitchen Challenge as a way of sharing a meal together, and you have the perfect recipe for a memorable and transformational event.

Do I Need to Hire SOLID for the Kitchen Challenge?

No. You can do the kitchen challenge on your own. We will provide a free consult to help you get started. But you can hire us for a nominal fee, and we will help you pull off a highly memorable and effective team-building event.

Do I Need to Hire SOLID to Rent a Home?

No. You can simply rent the home, as many companies do, and it is yours to do with as you like. You might just want to house your group or team at one or more of our properties, and have your off-site or on-site meeting elsewhere. Financially, you come out way better renting our homes than you do putting your employees up in hotels. And the team building that occurs naturally is worth its weight in gold.