Finding fun-yet-useful corporate outings that can engage a diverse group of employees can be a challenge in colder weather, when the seashore and golf courses are less inviting. But well-known Federal Hill Chef Walter Potenza has one solution for local business owners and managers seeking new ways to bring employees together.
He offers group cooking classes for anywhere from 12 to 44 people as what he calls “team-building” exercises, designed to boost morale and encourage productive collaboration, with the added bonus at the end of a feast shared by all. The classes take place on the second floor of his restaurant, Walter’s Ristorante d’Italia, on Atwells Avenue in Providence.
“People work together for so long that the job becomes redundant,” Potenza said in a recent interview with Providence Business News. “I can energize these people and get them excited through cooking.”
Potenza is a native of Abruzzo, Italy, who came to America at the age of 19 to live with his family and study history at Rhode Island College. His history studies, however, soon took a back seat to his love of cooking.
He has led kitchens in some of the best restaurants in New England, finally establishing his own in 1985 in East Greenwich. Nineteen years later, in 2004, he moved the eatery to a 1917 palazzo on Federal Hill, where it has been ever since. He also is director of Chef Walter’s Cooking School, with locations in Italy and Providence.
Potenza has appeared on virtually every television network, including the Food Network, NBC and CBS, and won an Emmy award for historical content in ABC-network shows “Stir It Up” and “Flavors & Knowledge.” His Federal Hill cookbook is in its fourth printing and he is in the process of releasing two more books, one on sweets on Federal Hill and another on the foods of Jews in Italy.
Potenza said he specializes in what is known as Mediterranean cooking in his classes and offers lessons on a wide variety of culinary offerings, from various meat dishes to pasta, sauces, desserts and cookies. He can adjust the menu for the classes to accommodate diabetics, as well as those with nut and dairy allergies. A company booking an outing with him also can request that certain recipes be taught.
“They are cooking for themselves,” said Potenza, noting that class participants consume the culinary concoctions they’ve made at the end of the outing. Most classes last about two hours, he said, with another 90 minutes set aside for feasting. “I teach all of the classes,” Potenza said, with his staff members lending assistance as needed.
The most popular time of the year for a culinary outing, Potenza said, is “whenever sales are low and companies need to energize their staffs,” such as during the holidays or the doldrums of deep winter. “This is a great way to bring people together,” he said.
At the Providence Warwick Convention & Visitors Bureau, Kristen Adamo, vice president of marketing and communications, said cooking-class outings such as Potenza’s are “helpful for us because Providence bills itself as a great culinary destination.”
She suggested that the cooking classes also appeal to visitors from out of town attending conventions in the Creative Capital. “People who come to meetings are interested in the same things as other tourists,” Adamo noted, namely experiences that can “give them fond memories” and a reason to return in the future.
Meetings and convention packages that the bureau prepares routinely cover not only “the nuts and bolts” of getting around Providence, she said, but also activities for delegates to take part in and a cooking class is ideal because “it fits into the city’s national reputation.”
Travel + Leisure magazine last year ranked Providence third in the nation for its culinary offerings, second only to San Francisco and New Orleans, one of several recent accolades for the increasingly respected dining scene in Rhode Island’s capital.
The Discover America LLC website lauds Johnson & Wales University, and its museum, as the “Smithsonian” of the food industry. •
