valantic DXA Lebanese cooking class 2022

Many cooks do not always spoil the broth

For our Munich office, the two Lebanese restaurants nearby have long been regular lunch breaks for us. When colleagues from other offices or the home-officers are in Munich, the question where to go for lunch is quickly made: we FINALLY have to have Lebanese food again. That's why we were thrilled when a Lebanese cooking course was on the list of Christmas incentives, along with rafting and skiing.

Fun fact: The story about the Traunstein office is that they usually have their lunch break at 12 o'clock. This lunch break has to be planned early enough, of course. The record time for the first "What's for lunch today?" question at the Traunstein office is 08:48.

Cooking class at Bilou Kitchen cooking studio

Lebanese cuisine is known for tasty dishes like falafel, baba ganoush, hummus and much more. Before you start feasting, you have to cook! After all, it's a cooking class.

At the Bilou cooking studio in Munich everyone got together: some colleagues haven’t had the chance to see each other in real life for a while due to the Corona lockdown or home office reasons. So we got to toas with a glass of wine and listened to the instructions of chef Jana Betzold. She not only gave us an introduction to the wonderful cooking studio, but also to Lebanese cuisine in general. Finally it was time to start cooking.

We're already good at cooking together, because at lunchtime the most diverse types of food meet in our office kitchens anyway. From "I cook fresh" to "I still have something from yesterday," "frozen pizza," "Döner Thursday," "Asian noodle box," "Wochinger" or, of course, "who wants to go to the Lebanese? And cooking together for the team is not new to us: When the group of colleagues was still more manageable, we also had a joint team cooking once a month: two colleagues cooked for the whole team. In contrast to the office kitchen, here in the Bilou cooking studio you can cook next to each other, or bake bread in the pan, let's say, a little beyond the day to day cooking experience in the office, without your colleagues nervously starting to hyperventilate because the customer appointment is just around the corner.

Lebanese dishes are very flavorful, with lots of fresh vegetables and herbs. Therefore we had to cut eggplant, chop parsley, dice tomatoes, peel a lot of garlic (and I really mean a lot of garlic), squeeze lemons and so on. There were many interesting and helpful tips from the cook, such as that it is best to peel pomegranates in a bowl of water and remove the seeds, the seeds will then float to the top, the skin will sink to the bottom. Or how to properly hold sharp knives and move them across the board when cutting.

So everyone got their money's worth and could chop ingredients for salads, bake dough in a pan to make bread, mix various creams, form falafel balls and deep-fry them, or bake cakes for dessert. And everything smelled so good!

 

Of course, we arranged and decorated everything attractively, briefly captured the wonderful evening with a few photos and then we were allowed to eat. In a cozy atmosphere, funny anecdotes from colleagues who have been with us for a long time and thus "belong to the inventory", but also some news about new colleagues were shared with each other.

Towards the end of the evening, we realized that no one had thought of a Tupperware bowl. At what age does it start that the Tupperware bowl for any leftovers becomes a permanent inventory of one’s handbag? But the Bilou cooking studio provided us with paper boxes - all in the spirit of sustainability. Therefore, we didn't have to throw away any food and could take some of the excellent food for a later supper.

After this entertaining evening, which ended much too quickly, we know that we definitely have to make hummus more often, the sesame sauce is very easy to make and tabouleh and sfouf will soon be a permanent dish at home. An outcome for this evening is definetely: there is simply nothing like great work colleagues. valantic DXA in general is a great team.

Conclusion

And so we went home smelling like garlic and with a smile on our faces - it was nice see so many colleagues away from work again.

Hungry for more? Here's the cooked menu and if you'd prefer the cooking class & colleagues, why not apply to join us? Click here for our job offers.

 

This is the menu:

  • Arabic bread
  • Baba Ganoush (eggplant cream)
  • Hummus
  • Fattoush (Bread Salad)
  • Tabouleh (Parsley Salad)
  • Kibbeh Mihschi (Bulgur meatballs)
  • Falafel
  • Tarator bi Tahine (Sesame sauce)
  • Sfouf (Turmeric cake)

 

We are looking for you!

Apply now

Are you in the mood for exciting projects and crazy events? Then we think it's a match - we offer both.