The Golden Chopsticks Awards (#TheGCAs) is an awards ceremony which recognises East and South East Asian cuisine across the UK. Our mission is to celebrate the enormous contribution of restaurateurs and food businesses to the UK catering industry and champion the food heroes working within it.
Let’s start with a little history…
The GCAs was founded in 2017 by three friends; Gok Wan MBE, 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. The Founders, united by their love of East and South East Asian cuisine and culture and surprised that there was no event dedicated to celebrating the successes of this sector, decided to launch The Golden Chopsticks Awards.
After months of research and hard work, a concept for The Golden Chopsticks Awards was born. From here the team were able to secure the support of ten expert judges led by head judge Ken Hom CBE, who would bring invaluable knowledge, authenticity and credibility to the decision making process of the awards. As the project built momentum, key industry sponsors came on board including Just Eat and Lee Kum Kee amongst other influential brands. This brought a further wealth of experience and expertise to the table.
In January 2018, the very first GCAs campaign launched across the UK with 6 weeks of public voting. The UK public voted in their thousands for their favourite restaurants, takeaways and street food vendors. The inaugural Golden Chopsticks Awards was hosted at the London Marriott, Grosvenor Square by Gok Wan MBE to a ballroom of 450 guests , a sell out in it’s first year, the first GCAs was a huge triumph for the Founders and Judges. The feedback from attendees unanimously declared that the GCAS was a resounding success, different from any other food awards with it’s unique energy and audience engagement.
Moving into its 5th year, the GCAs 2024 campaign launches when public voting opens on the 8th January 2024. East and South East Asian restaurants, takeaways, cafes and street food vendors are once again invited to fiercely compete in the hope to win one of the most coveted awards in the East and South East Asian food sector. Voting closes on the 26th February 2024 and the Finalists will be announced on the 8th March 2024.
What is now considered one of the food industry’s hottest tickets, The Golden Chopsticks Awards 2024 will take place at Royal Lancaster London on Monday 29th April 2024.
The Golden Chopsticks Awards is one of the most colourful and entertaining evening’s in the food industry calendar and each year tickets have sold out weeks before the event. Please sign up to our newsletter to be notified as soon as tickets are on sale.