LONDON, April 30 (Xinhua) -- An awards ceremony which recognises Oriental cuisine across Britain has been held here Monday night.
The Golden Chopsticks Awards ceremony, in its second year, has seen a total of 22 award categories marking the excellence of both the restaurant sector and contribution made by suppliers, supermarkets, food writers and individuals to the industry's growth.
Gok Wan, co-founder and host of the awards, said the mission of the awards is to celebrate the enormous contribution of Oriental cuisine to the British catering industry and champion those who work within it.
"Chinese culture and cuisine have been an integral part of the UK dining scene for the past 60 years with Chinese food voted one of the nation's favourites year on year. Nowadays joining the well-established Japanese and Thai food scene we see ...Malaysian and Vietnamese dishes growing in popularity together with specialist regional Chinese offerings," he commented.
He added, "The Golden Chopsticks Awards 2019 aims to build on the success of year one, creating an even bigger and better celebration of Oriental food excellence in the UK, and growing the number of establishments taking part. Whether it's a well-loved local Chinese takeaway, or an exquisite fine dining fusion restaurant, we want to celebrate everything the industry has to offer."
In 2018, the very first Golden Chopsticks Awards was launched in Britain by three friends: Gok Wan, TV presenter, fashion stylist and author; Lucy Mitchell, managing director of Oriental Food Specialist SeeWoo UK, and Sarah Lewis, leading food and drink PR and communications specialist. As the only awards in Britain to recognise Oriental cuisine, the event was extremely well received by the industry.
To acknowledge the growth and ever-changing diversity in the market, several new awards were introduced in 2019 to shine light on the Oriental representation within vegetarian food, street food, dumplings and desserts & sweet treats, and delivered an exciting mix of nominees, from London's first plant-based vegan pop up to Filipino "dirty ice cream" from the streets of Manila.
The chosen restaurants were voted for by members of the public over a six-week period, with 20,000 votes registered. Separate industry prizes were awarded by an esteemed judging panel including influential figures Ken Hom, Emmy-nominated Ching-He Huang and Chinese food expert Fuchsia Dunlop.
The event founders believe that Oriental cuisine continues to be fast growing in Britain not only in terms of market size, but also in diversity and choice, which largely reflects the investment from China into British property and businesses and the growing population of Chinese students choosing to study and live here.
