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How to Make a Dinner Cooking Game

A dinner cooking game can turn a family dinner or dinner party into a hilarious event. A cooking game not only provides entertainment for your family or guests, it produces an interesting dinner for everybody to enjoy. Breaking away from traditional meals and activities at a dinner party allows for the guests to interact and get to know one another. A dinner cooking game can act as an ice breaker, a team-building exercise, a learning activity for kids or a serious cooking competition amongst friends.

Things You'll Need

Index cards
Cooking ingredients

Instructions

- 1
  
  Create teams of cooks.
  
  Consider the game participants you have and assign them to teams. Try to balance your participants' talents and skills amongst the teams, pairing children with adults and less experienced cooks with more experienced ones. If you don't have enough participants, use individuals instead of teams. Aim to create four or five different teams.
- 2
  
  Each team will cook with a different method.
  
  Prepare your game by making "method" cards for your teams. Write the name of each major method of cooking on a card for each team. The basic cards will be: oven, stove top, microwave, grill and countertop (for creating a cold dish). Each team will draw one "method" card.
- 3
  
  A variety of ingredients makes for a diverse meal.
  
  Write the names of your basic ingredients on each of the "ingredient" cards. Include main ingredients, such as meats, as well as a variety of vegetables, grains, cheeses, sauces, oils, seasonings, etc. Throw in some oddball ingredients you happen to have in your cupboards. Observing how participants utilize these ingredients will add fun and interest to the game. Create enough "ingredient" cards so that each team will have at least five.
- 4
  
  Each team draws several cards.
  
  Gather your teams for the assignment of the cards. Make one pile of "method" cards and one of "ingredient" cards. Each team should blindly draw one method card and equal numbers of ingredient cards.
- 5
  
  Teams trade cards to plan their meal.
  
  Allow teams to plan their meal by trading their ingredient cards with other teams. Each team should have the option of trading one or more ingredient cards that they don't want. Have teams pass their rejected cards to the right and let that team decide if they want to accept the card or pass it on. The amount of trading you allow will determine if the meal ends up somewhat normal or extremely haphazard.
- 6
  
  The game yields unique dishes.
  
  Allocate some time for the teams to create a plan of what they want to make. You may choose to allow Internet access during this time. Sites like Celebrations.com offer many recipe ideas for creative dishes. Recipes like this will only act as a jumping-off point; your teams will still have to work only with the ingredients on their cards.
- 7
  
  Teams plan their dish using all of their ingredients.
  
  With each team armed with their method and ingredients cards, let the cooking begin. Teams must use all of the ingredients in their dish and use the method they chose to create the dish.
- 8
  
  Enjoy a dish from each team.
  
  When all teams have prepared their dish, sit down to dinner. You can choose to award winners in different categories such as most delicious, most original or most complex.

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