Christmas Edition

Open Cooking Studio for Team Event Planners

Try it yourself first.

You book Christmas for everyone else. Come to one.

You are the person who gets asked to "organise something for December" — usually with a budget that appeared last week, a room of forty people with forty opinions, and no way of knowing whether the venue is any good until everyone is standing in it. Come and stand in it first.

What you'll experience

You cook. Properly — knives, heat, your hands in it — alongside our chefs, in the same format your team would. Then everyone eats what they made at one table, with a drink, and you go home with something from the kitchen.

Along the way you will see how the room feels with a group in it, how people who arrive as colleagues end up talking, and what it actually costs. Ask us anything. That is what the evening is for.

You will leave with

• A clear idea of which format suits your team, and why some work better than others for a December crowd
• Answers on the awkward parts — how the group is split, what happens to the person who will not cook, how dietary requirements are handled without anyone feeling singled out
• A venue you have actually stood in, so when you recommend it you are recommending something you know
• Contacts who do your job, and the guest list afterwards
• Dinner, a drink and something from the kitchen

Why come

Because December decisions get made in a hurry, and the good dates go first. Better to choose now, having seen it, than in October from a web search.

And because you spend your working life running these evenings. This one is yours.

Who else is in the room

Executive assistants, personal assistants, office managers, People and Culture, team leaders — all quietly organising the same thing, mostly on their own, mostly on top of an actual job. You will not have to explain what you do. Bring a colleague if you like, but only two per company, so the room stays mixed.

Cook. Connect. Plan a food experience that works.

Cook, instead of organising for once. Connect with people who understand the job. And leave with a format, a price and a date that will actually suit your team.

What we run for teams

Our events all work the same way: everyone cooks, nobody watches. Small groups, a job each, and about fifteen minutes in they stop being colleagues and start being people cooking together. Then everyone eats what they made at one table.

• Christmas and end-of-year celebrations — the full evening, food and drinks included
• MasterChef Challenge — teams cook against each other, judged at the end
• Culinary Connection — one menu, built together across the room
• Market tour and cook — a Melbourne market first, then the kitchen

14+ cuisines, groups of 10 to 40 in one studio, or up to 80 across both, three kilometres from the city.

Getting here

Otao Kitchen, 393 Victoria Street, Abbotsford VIC 3067

Trams 109 and 12 stop at the door, North Richmond station is seven minutes away, and there is street parking after 6:00pm. Both studios are at street level. Tell us your dietary requirements when you book — we will sort them out, exactly as we would for your team.

Cooking in Melbourne since 2014. Gold for Excellence in Food Tourism at the Victorian Tourism Awards, 2022 and 2023.

Book your seat

Two per company. Your booking fee comes off your first event with us, so if you go ahead, the evening is free.

December dates start going from early October — come now and you will still have the pick of them.

hello@otaokitchen.com.au