Itsu celebrates customer creativity with virtual cooking competition

The winning dish's recipe will be featured on their website.

Asian-inspired food chain Itsu is launching a virtual cooking competition for professionals and home cooks as restaurants around the UK continue to share their recipes online during the lockdown.

The first ever #itsufakeoff will see six chosen contestants going head to head. The competition will run over five days, with five different Asian-inspired dishes to be made. Each contestant will receive an Itsu package prior to the competition, which will include one key ingredient per day.

Each day, contestants will create a dish including the key ingredient using anything they can find in their kitchen. Dishes will then be shared on itsu’s Instagram and put to a public vote. The person with the least votes during that day will leave the competition, until just one remains.

Each participant will win an Itsu hamper, increasing in value the longer they stay in the competition, and will have their most voted for recipe published on the Itsu website. The overall winner will get their “pink card”, entitling them to 50% off all restaurant products for a year or £100 itsu grocery voucher to use in supermarkets if the winner does not live near a shop.

“We have been so inspired by the endless recipes and food photography shared with us during lockdown, we thought it was only right to recognise these cooks! So, whether you are a professional chef missing the challenge of the kitchen, or simply a home chef that has taken to the pans in quarantine, this is the perfect opportunity to put those cooking skills to the test and get the public’s seal of approval,” Itsu [grocery] brand manager Georgina Bolton Carter said.

Speaking to QSR Media, a spokesperson for the chain said that it received about 90 applications for competition at present. Whilst working on reopening, Itsu said they have yet to get a confirmed date.