Roadblock to Food Revolution

I've followed Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution to improve school lunches and was excited to learn about his expanded focus on cooking in the workplace. He teamed up with IDEO to teach employees how to cook. This new venture is called Cooking & Company, and it’s mission is to bring food revolution into the workplace. (BTW, I love the Cooking for All mindmap on the main page of the site.) One of my colleagues, Nina Kranz, is an excellent cook, so she agreed to take the lead in developing a program for ASHA. 


To learn more about Cooking and Company, I participated in a #co_health tweet chat with IDEO’s Aaron Sklar and Helena Cohen and Nina corresponded with Helena. Helena encourages employers to create a hands on experience for employees. They've been keeping the recipes simple with things like omelettes and fajitas. 


So, Nina and I were excited. We were gearing up for a big fajita cook off when, oof, we were told we could not use an electric heat source or a butane burner in our LEED certified green building. Evidently the wiring can't accomodate the electricity and the butane compromises the air quality. So, we have no source of heat for cooking. (Well, nothing other than a microwave.)


We want to encourage people to cook for themselves and their families at home, but this roadblock has thrown a monkey wrench in our plan. We're bouncing around other ideas -- maybe a knife skills class or a pizza dough making class. What suggestions do you have for us?