Apr 15, 2022
OSAKA, JAPAN – Two winning dishes in the 2021 USA Rice Chef Contest, featuring U.S. medium grain, are being served in the restaurants of major hotels here. Top prize in the “take-out” category, a colorful rice bowl filled with vegetables and yogurt sauce, has been featured on the menu at Hotel Granvia Osaka since February. It’s become a guest favorite so will continue to be offered through September 2022.
The second-place recipe, Tianjin-style rice with crab and starchy egg sauce, debuted on the menu at the Hotel Monterey La Soeur Osaka on April 1 and will run for three months through June 30.
The award-winning rice bowl recipe was an entry in a new contest category, “take-out & delivery,” created in recognition of the recent surge in popularity of that segment of the foodservice industry due to pandemic travel and dining restrictions. The rice and crab recipe was a winner in the “professional chef” category.
USA Rice publicized the two dishes via press releases and social media ads. In addition, the U.S. Embassy Agricultural Trade Office (ATO) Osaka reported the news on their USDA Japan website and their USA Instagram account.
U.S. rice exports to Japan in 2021 totaled 317,042 metric tons valued at $292 million, an 11 percent increase in value over 2020 on similar tonnage.