A TIVERTON marketing communications agency has quite literally spiced up its approach to team building.

Staff from Oxygen agency donned chefs' hats and aprons for a bespoke Indian cookery class at Taunton restaurant Mint and Mustard.

The award-winning restaurant, which specialises in South Indian cuisine, guided a team of eight through the intricacies of making a main course, side dish, chapatti and rice, led by head chef Loganathan.

MD of Oxygen, Steve Lodge, said: “The head chef and manager were on hand for three hours, showing our team exactly how to prepare and cook authentic Indian cuisine.

“Then they let us loose with a hob and ingredients to cook our own. They even handled the fact that four of our team were vegetarian, including one person on a celiac diet.

“This was a great chance for our staff to see each other's skills in the kitchen, far away from our Apple Macs and PCs.

“Cooking is a creative skill and it's no surprise that our creative director Malcolm Buttel was awarded a 'best chef' award by the restaurant, and given a box of exotic spices to take home.”

Manager of the Taunton restaurant, Niranjan Kumar, said: “It was a very nice team to work with, and we are happy to hear that they had very good team building cookery session.”

Oxygen is no stranger to interesting team building opportunities, having taken the staff on previous events including a beer brewing course and a fancy dress dinner.