If there’s one passion everyone in the Victoria office shares, it’s food. Either we love to cook it or we love to eat it. Most often it’s both.
When a new restaurant opens downtown, we’re all clamouring to go try it out — hello, Island Poké! — and if you need an afternoon pastry, there’s always someone eager to join you on a treat run. We bring in baked goods and homemade cider to share, just because, and we’re open to trying new things, like that cheese tea I sampled, describing the flavour to the whole team in great detail. And let’s not even talk about the coffee obsession. Whether you want a pour-over, aeropress, espresso, or a fresh-brewed cup ready and waiting in the coffee pot, we’ve got you covered.
You never realize you don’t have a ladle until you really need one.
When we moved into our new office space last November, we were all excited to have a shiny new kitchen to work in. At first, it was mainly used by folks looking to cook an egg for a late breakfast or warm up soup at lunch. That changed in December, when I decided to make waffles for the team. Not just any waffles — cheese waffles. Believe me, they’re as good as they sound. The next month, Noah, our Director of Operations, made pasta with a choice of could-kill-a-vampire garlic marinara or vegan coconut squash sauce. And with that, monthly team cooking was born!
Waffles and a talk about stock options with our founder, Brad.
Every month, one of our teams is responsible for keeping the kitchen in good working order, from loading the dishwasher to letting Operations know when we need to swing by Fernwood Coffee for a refill of beans. That team now has the option to prepare a team lunch as part of their kitchen duty! Last month, we had two kinds of curry, prepared by our Customer Success team, and this month, our Marketing folks are treating us to lunch, but they’re keeping the menu a surprise.
Pasta lunch!
We provide team lunches every two weeks, but the home-cooked meals have become monthly highlight. Each team approaches their meal differently, but everyone brings their passion for food. Some want to showcase the skills of each team member with a recipe they’ve perfected, others make a family-style dish for the crowd. So far, each team has misjudged the amount of food that twenty people will actually eat, leaving us with enough to feed about eighty. But all of the meals have been delicious and have filled our kitchen with delicious smells, hungry folks, and lively conversation. We’re only a few months into this experiment, but we can’t wait to see the fun ideas teams come up with in the future. The Operations team is already planning something special for our next turn to cook!
