A message from Gok Wan MBE – launch of fundraising appeal for Golden Chopsticks Awards Scholarship

5th October 2021

Gok Wan MBE, Lucy Tse-Mitchell and Sarah Lewis, co-founders of the Golden Chopsticks Awards, invite you to support a new annual scholarship programme, to be launched in partnership with the Oxford Cultural Collective.

Top donors to enjoy tea at the Ritz with Ken Hom OBE, or a sought after place at the cook-school of chef Ping Coombes, winner of BBC Masterchef (to be announced on 6th November 2021).

To donate, follow this link (closes 5th November 2021)

The Golden Chopsticks Awards, which celebrate excellence in the East and South East Asian restaurant and food sectors in the UK, was founded in 2017 by friends: Gok Wan, TV presenter, fashion stylist and author; Lucy Tse-Mitchell, Managing Director of Oriental Food specialist SeeWoo UK; and Sarah Lewis, leading food and drink PR and communications specialist. On 27th September this year, around 500 guests gathered at the Marriott Grosvenor Square Hotel in London, for the annual awards ceremony. Ten expert judges, led by head judge Ken Hom OBE, oversee the presentation of awards which recognise excellence across twenty different categories.

In recognition of the need to attract talented young professionals into the East and South East Asian restaurant sector, The Golden Chopstick Awards and the Oxford Cultural Collective are working together to establish a new scholarship programme, which will provide transformative learning experiences for culinary arts students and trainee chefs.

A message from Gok, Lucy and Sarah:

“This year we wanted to turn our efforts to raising money to support our fabulous hospitality industry. The past 18 months have been brutal. Not only has the industry had the pandemic to deal with, but now the aftermath of Brexit is compounding the skills shortage, which was already heavily affecting the sector.

So in conjunction with the Oxford Cultural Collective Trust, we have been developing the Golden Chopsticks Awards Scholarship to support students on culinary arts programmes and trainee chefs. We hope that our GCAs scholarship will benefit young homegrown talent, support diversity in the sector and offer creative professional development opportunities for trainee chefs. Our scholarship will focus on skills development of our scholars, drawing on the incredible talents we have within our GCAs community of Judges and Partners.

Details on how to nominate a student or trainee chef will be available soon on the OCC Trust page of the Oxford Cultural Collective website. Let’s all play a part in helping the recovery of our much loved hospitality and catering sector”.

Full details of the Golden Chopsticks Awards Scholarship programme, including the nature of the award for recipients and the nominating procedure, will follow in the near future.

In the meantime, we invite you to support the Golden Chopsticks Awards Appeal, by making a financial donation. The top two donors will enjoy tea at the Ritz with Ken Hom OBE, or a sought after place at the cook-school of chef Ping Coombes, winner of BBC Masterchef.