Professional Chef Contest in Japan Draws Record Number of Entries

TOKYO – The final hands-on cooking competition of the 9th U.S. Medium Grain Chef Menu Contest 2021, sponsored by USA Rice, took place here early last month with 167 entries, besting the previous entry total of 137.   The contest theme was "takikomi," a Japanese rice dish with vegetables, mushrooms, seafood, or meat that’s seasoned with Japanese stock, called dashi, and soy sauce.

Of the ten chefs who competed in the final competition, four winners were selected for the Gold, Silver, and Bronze Awards, as well as the newly established "Take Out & Delivery Award,” created to highlight the importance of take out for foodservice establishments during the continuing pandemic restrictions.

“The takikomi theme is a practical menu offering that makes it easy for us to promote U.S. medium grain to foodservice and food-related companies,” said Jim Guinn USA Rice director of Asia promotion programs.  “Plans are in the works to produce a recipe book featuring takikomi made with U.S.-grown rice, and these contest results will be included as menu suggestions.”

Japan is the third largest export destination for U.S. rice with exports of 264,000 MT, valued at nearly $230 million, in the first 10 months of 2021.  Japan also ranks second in terms of value and is the second largest export market for milled rice.