Every year in summer, we at ARCO enjoy an office outing. Usually, work gets wrapped up shortly before lunch. After lunch, everybody packs their bags and we hit the road.
This time, plans were kept secret and no one knew where the journey went beforehand. Suspense therefore was high as the big secret finally got revealed; final destination was Solothurn! But what would happen there? Again, no one knew...
At Zurich HB, we all got lucky. We were handed Coke Zero cans as free samples. What a perfect start to our trip!
The train ride only took about one hour. Tension was at a peak - everyone wanted to know more!
Finally arrived, the first activity was revealed; split into two teams, our task was to walk through the old city centre of Solothurn and answer as many questions as possible. Kind of like a scavenger hunt! Questions were not easy at all, for example there was a picture of a monument we all had never seen before. We then had to find it and fill in the location. Or we were supposed to find the mistake in a photoshopped picture by comparing it to the real location.
Time was limited, we had to meet back at the foot of the stairs right by the St. Ursen Cathedral.
At the foot of the stairs, behind us the St. Ursen Cathedral.
Trying to solve the quiz is not as easy as we all thought...
Though we struggled with the questions which were so much harder than expected, we had a lot of fun. Back at the St. Ursen Cathedral, the winning team was determined.
Price for each teammate of the winning team was a little sachet of traditional "Bsetzistei", a handmade Solothurn specialty. These little treats are made out of chocolate with a praline filling covered in cocoa powder, reminding of the typical cobblestones of Switzerland's oldest baroque city.
The winners!
Something that could not be missed on a hot summer day - ice cream!
After a quick ice cream break our trip continued. Next stop: Kochatelier Cleveress (check it out here: https://www.cleveress.ch/).
The location was only a 10 minute walk away from the centre.
The interior was beautiful! The studio was flooded with daylight coming in through a big window, and the bright colours made us instantly feel very welcomed. A big, open kitchen offered loads of space for prepping and cooking. As you walk through a narrow corridor, you get to a second little kitchen area with access to the backyard.
It was a dream for everyone who likes to cook. There was every utensil needed. And more. Every ingredient, any imaginable spice and sauce, basically all you could ever think of. We even got to wear aprons!
Those are said aprons - in action!
The concept of Cleveress is to create a three course meal oneself instead of simply sitting down and letting food be brought to the table. This seemed to be the perfect activity for our office outing, as food was by no means an uncommon topic during our office lunches... What can I say - we all just love to eat...
First up; we enjoyed our aperitif outside in the backyard. This was the only part of our dinner that we had not made ourselves.
Sipping on a glass of white wine, the two lovely ladies explained all about the values of Cleveress. Later on, they would help us throughout the evening and give us instructions.
They talked about how it is part of their mission to cook environmental friendly meals and consequently have a positive impact on our planet. This explained the reason for their choice of regional products. All courses were made of fresh, seasonal ingredients. Additionally, there was not only a meat option, but also a vegetarian variation.
Divided into groups, we then tackled different parts of our dinner. Some were responsible for the watermelon-gazpacho, others were preparing the mediterranean tofu or the herb chicken. The bulgur salad with carrots, dates, pomegranates, harissa and mint was also taken care of. Of course, dessert could not be missed; we made lemon balm ice cream, all by ourselves! It was delicious.
We had so much fun preparing and cooking our own dinner. The two ladies at Cleveress gave us simple instructions and made sure we didn't burn down the kitchen...
Dinner was served in the backyard. On a table we presented all the different dishes. It looked (and smelled!) amazing.
For quite some time we sat outside, enjoyed our self-made dinner accompanied by laughter and good conversations. The food was absolutely delicious. For each and every dish the responsible group told us a funny moment that happened during preparation. We were all surprized by how well we managed.
Everybody was proud to have cooked such a wonderful meal together. Teamwork makes the dinner work!