So you’ve made some new friends and now you want to get to know them a little bit better. How do you go about doing that? You’ve tried going to the movies with them and you even accepted an invite to hang out on the beach. For some reason though, it seems like the relationship with your new friends has become somewhat stagnant. What can you do to make a deeper connection? While food seems like an obvious answer and getting together to eat is always a great idea, you’re hoping to try something a little more fun. One thing you may have never thought about trying is cooking as a way to bond with your new friends. Here are four reasons why this is such a great idea.
Cooking Strengthens Relationships
It’s been proven that cooking can actually strengthen relationships which is one of the reasons couples are encouraged to cook with one another. One of the reasons for this is because cooking together can actually help improve communication. It doesn’t just apply to couples in a relationship, improved communication can also develop in other types of relationships such as friends, especially new ones who might still be trying to find effective ways to communicate with one another. Cooking offers a nonthreatening way to offer constructive criticism to new-found friends and it also helps each other realize who has certain strengths and weaknesses. This can be helpful for knowing how to encourage one another or help build up each other’s confidence in specific areas. Knowing how to better communicate, finding ways to offer constructive criticism, and understanding strengths and weaknesses are all definitely things that can strengthen relationships.
Cooking Can Help Develop Team Building Skills
Friends who cook together can not only deepen their connection with one another it can actually help them work better as a team. Some of the ways cooking can help develop team building skills is by encouraging collaboration. Also, sometimes when new friends hang out together and decide to partake in a sporting event, this might make it hard for those who aren’t the athletic type. Cooking puts everyone on an even playing field and is something everyone can do. While it’s true, some may be more comfortable in the kitchen, working on a new recipe that no one in the group has ever made before makes things a little fairer. It also gives the friend who has been cooking for years a chance to offer help to those who don’t cook as much.
Companies also benefit from cooking as a means of team building. Cooking is one of those experiences that when used for team building, brings the colleagues together and makes them closer to one another.
Cooking Together is Just Plain Fun
For those who rarely cook or who are used to either having someone else do the cooking for them, they might not know what they are missing out on. Cooking together is way more fun than going to the movies together because friends will actually get a chance to talk with one another which is something that is forbidden in the theater. It’s also more fun than simply going out to eat because sitting down in a restaurant or bar doesn’t give friends the opportunity to show off their creativity, leadership, or attention to details. Cooking together lets friends get to know each other on a whole new different level. Friends who have never cooked together before can try the following steps:
- Set up the kitchen into work stations
- Make sure there are snacks and fun accessories like matching aprons
- Do some taste testing after the food is done
- Make sure everyone can take home leftovers
Cooking with Friends Offers a Safe Place to Learn Something New
There is also another added benefit that cooking with friends provides and it’s that it might encourage someone to make something they have never made before. Maybe making a recipe with 20 ingredients is a little bit intimidating or maybe some have never cooked with certain ingredients before. Cooking with a group of friends can help one another overcome their fear of trying something new. Chances are, everyone in the group will have learned something about cooking they never knew before.
There you have it – four reasons cooking is the best way to bond with new friends. Whether friends want to strengthen their relationship with one another, develop team building skills, do something unique that is a ton of fun, or learn something new, cooking is a great way to do all four.
Eternal adventurer and wanderlust seeker! Always thinking about (and planning) our next adventure, hence the name”Thinking Nomads”!
Wife to Marco and mamma to Isabella and Maya. India, Nepal and Vietnam are my top three countries!
Norway, Iceland and South Africa are top of my bucket list!
