Development Retreat

Starwood’s Le Méridien hotel brand has made the éclair its dessert of choice, developing a signature éclair for each destination in partnership with James Beard award-winning pastry chef Johnny Iuzzini. While the treats are served on the hotel’s restaurant menus as well as offered as meeting breaks, they can also be incorporated into teambuilding activities. Several properties, from Santa Monica (pictured) to Dallas to Philadelphia have led groups in a build-your-own éclair station.

Pastry chef Danny Angelopolus leads cooking classes for groups gathered at the Charles Hotel in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he creates treats such as whoopie pies (pictured) and pear tarts. In two recent teambuilding classes, groups focused on making their own doughnuts and pie.

Groups can take part in activities such as dipping their own chocolate truffles to creating chocolate bars topped with dried fruit, nuts, and other toppings at the New York’s Voilà Chocolat. The Upper West Side venue offers chocolate-making classes under the direction of owner Peter Moustakerski along with former Jacques Torres chocolatier Christophe Toury and chocolate scientist Dennis Teets. Attendees have their own workstations and can choose milk, white, or dark chocolate for their creations.

Palm Beach Marriott Singer Island Beach Resort & Spa offers several sweet options for teambuilding events, many of which have competitive elements. In a cookie-decorating competition, a pastry chef demonstrates how to decorate a cookie with royal icing. Each team must then try to recreate the cookie, with the most accurate rendition named the winner. In another competition-style event, teams learns how to make ice cream from a pastry chef. They create their own flavor and race to hand-churn the ice cream, with each member taking a turn. Everyone can taste the results at an ice cream sundae station.

A seasonal teambuilding option at the Palm Beach Marriott Singer Island Beach Resort & Spa involves gathering outdoors to make the classic childhood dessert s’mores. Instead of a campfire, however, the hotel will set up a bonfire on the beach with comfortable chairs and tiki-style torches. The option is available November 1 through February. Another desserts activity that plays off of nostalgia serves up edible board games such as tic-tac-toe and checkers that guests can play—and then eat.

For groups that want an off-site teambuilding option, the Cayuga County Office of Tourism in New York’s Finger Lakes region has created the Sweet Treat Trail. The self-guided tasting tour visits family-owned farms and other local businesses such as a creamery, apiary, and orchard. Guests can sample Maple Syrup cotton candy, honey-lavender biscotti, and ice cream made with locally grown and produced products. Through November 1, the tourism office offers a pass that guests can have stamped at stops on the tour to be eligible to win a holiday basket of treats from the trail.

At the Sanctuary on Camelback Mountain hotel in Arizona, chef Beau MacMillan leads groups in a “Top Chef Meets Iron Chef” competition. After revealing a secret ingredient, he gives groups 30 minutes to create a dish—which may be a dessert—for a panel of judges. After the winners are announced, groups move on to a three-course lunch or dinner with wine service. All participants receive signed Sanctuary aprons and the chef’s cookbook.