Summer Workshops

Your team joins one live video call and cooks along with a professional chef. A Rockoly host opens the event, keeps the chat and the games moving, and hands over to the chef, who works at your group's pace with step-by-step guidance and live help when a sauce splits. Most summer menus run 60 minutes, and add-ons such as roasted brussels sprouts with the smashburger stretch a class to 90. Ingredients arrive at each participant's door ahead of the event, so the only job on the day is showing up hungry.

Nine seasonal workshops, built around what actually tastes good in July:

• Jalapeño Poppers: crisp outside, creamy inside, vegetarian with a vegan option.
• Jamaican Jerk Chicken with mango salsa, or a cauliflower steak for vegetarians and vegans.
• Summer Smashburger with a signature sauce and all the classic toppings.
• Wagyu Ribeye, pan-seared and plated like a pro, no fancy tools needed.
• Spanish Tapas Party: sangria, pan con tomate and patatas bravas.
• Greek Souvlaki, chicken or vegetable, with tzatziki.
• Turkish Pide, the oval Turkish flatbread, filled with spinach and feta and finished with an egg.
• Parisian Crêpes with creamy brie and honey.
• Strawberry Shortcake with fluffy biscuits and fresh whipped cream.

The add-ons are seasonal too: a beer pairing with the burger, sparkling wine with the crêpes or the shortcake, rice and peas beside the jerk chicken, and an optional alcohol kit for the sangria, since everything for the non-alcoholic version is already in the box.

Summer ingredients behave differently, and the chefs build these menus around that.

• Strawberries do not ripen after picking. Unlike a peach or a banana, a strawberry stops making sugar the moment it leaves the plant, so a berry picked in season beats anything shipped in January. That is why Strawberry Shortcake is a June dish and not a February one.
• A jalapeño's heat lives in the pale membrane inside, not in the seeds. Scrape that pith and you keep the flavor while dialing the burn down, which is how one popper recipe can suit a whole team.
• Allspice is a single dried berry, not a blend. It just happens to taste like clove, cinnamon and nutmeg at once, and it is the backbone of Jamaican jerk seasoning.

Your chef explains it while you cook, so people finish with a technique they will use at their own grill for the rest of the summer.

Ingredients ship to each participant, free anywhere in the US, and arrive ahead of your event date. Each delivery is portioned per person and sized to feed a family of four, so the meal doesn't end when the call does. Teammates abroad can be shipped to as well; we have delivered to Australia, the UK, Canada, Sweden, Ireland, Germany, Mexico, India and Spain, among other countries. Where that isn't practical, we send a simple shopping list so nobody has to sit and watch.

It is built for participation, not viewing. Everyone has a knife in hand and the same dish in front of them, which breaks the ice faster than any webinar. Your host runs light trivia and a mini scavenger hunt while things simmer, watches the chat so quieter people get a turn, and takes a group photo at the end. Those team-building extras cost nothing. Partners and kids can join on the same screen, which is usually the moment a summer event stops feeling like work.

Yes, and an intern cohort is close to an ideal group for one. Interns start as strangers, often scattered between home addresses and the office, and a 60-minute workshop puts all of them doing the same thing with their hands, which breaks the ice faster than a welcome deck. Ingredients ship to each person individually, so an intern two states away is in the same event as the ones in the building. Groups run from 3 people to 600 and up, and the per-person rate drops at 31 and again at 50, so a full cohort costs less per head than a small team. Tell your planner it's an onboarding group and they'll help you land on a menu that suits a room full of first-timers.

Yes, at no extra cost. Vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free options run across almost every summer menu: the jerk chicken becomes a cauliflower steak, the souvlaki goes vegetable, and the poppers, the pide and the crêpes are vegetarian already. The Wagyu Ribeye is the one menu built around its beef, so tell your planner if you need a meat-free table and we'll point you at a better fit. The sangria stays alcohol-free unless you add the kit. Kosher requests are accommodated when you tell us in advance, and allergies are handled per person once you share the details, so one person's substitution never becomes everyone's menu.

Rates are tiered by group size. Most summer menus start at $695 for a group under five, or $139 per person for 5 to 30, $129 for 31 to 50, and $119 at 50 and above, which covers the jalapeño poppers, the jerk chicken and the crêpes. Heartier menus sit a tier up: souvlaki and strawberry shortcake at $149 per person for 5 to 30, the smashburger, Spanish Tapas Party and Turkish Pide at $159. The Wagyu Ribeye is in a bracket of its own at $1,300 for a group under five, or $260 per person for 5 to 30. Every rate covers the chef, your dedicated event planner, the host who runs the call, all ingredients delivered and gratuities.

Almost none. A dedicated Rockoly planner handles the menu, the participant list, addresses, dietary swaps and the run of show, so your part is choosing a date and sending a headcount.

Book about three weeks out to give ingredients time to ship. Summer is the one season where the calendar works against you for a different reason than usual — it is not that dates are scarce, it is that half your team is away in any given week, so the useful question to settle first is which week has the fewest people on holiday. Rush dates are sometimes possible depending on chef availability.

A $250 deposit holds the date, payable by credit card, ACH transfer or check. Cancel 21 or more days out and you are refunded what you paid less any nonrecoverable costs already committed; 8 to 20 days out you choose between a 50% refund and a 100% Rockoly credit; inside 8 days payments are nonrefundable, though one complimentary reschedule is yours if you ask 14+ days ahead. Start with the inquiry form on this page, call (617) 939-9732 or email events@rockoly.com. Every event is covered by the Love Your Event Guarantee.