Chinatown London's Mamasons Dirty Ice Cream has won the award for ‘Best Sweet Treat’ at The Golden Chopsticks Awards, sponsored by Shaftesbury.
The Filipino ice-cream parlour, that opened its second site on Newport Court in Chinatown London in September, was nominated alongside other Shaftsbury Chinatown tenants, Tsujiri, Yolkin and Cuppacha.
Hosted by Gok Wan, the event took place at The London Marriott Hotel, Grosvenor Square, on Monday April 29. Now in its second year, the awards celebrate the important contribution of cuisine from the Far East to the UK catering industry, and is one of the largest and most prestigious celebrations of Asian food in the world.
The 22 award categories included four new awards introduced this year to acknowledge the growth and ever-changing diversity in the market, including vegetarian food, street food, dumplings and desserts.
The winners were voted for by members of the public over a six-week period, with 20,000 votes registered. Separate industry prizes were awarded by a prestigious judging panel including influential figures Ken Hom OBE, Ching-He Huang, School of Wok’s Jeremy Pang, Gizzi Erskine and Sunday Brunch’s Simon Rimmer who were all in attendance on the night.
Julia Wilkinson, Head of Group Restaurant Strategy at Shaftesbury, said, “Chinatown London is delighted to be a part of this respected event that brings together our vibrant community and celebrates the very best operators in the industry.
'We are also tremendously proud to see Mamasons, one of our new and much-loved operators, win the ‘Best Sweet Treat’ award. This new award is a direct reflection of the booming popularity of Asian desserts in the Far East, and we are proud that Chinatown London is leading the way in this trend in the UK.
'Shaftesbury is committed to curating a distinctive destination where East meets West and having a number of Chinatown London tenants nominated for awards, including Ichibuns and last year’s ‘Best in England’ winner, JinLi, is a clear indicator of the destination’s position in the industry.”
Gok Wan, co-founder and host of the awards, commented, ‘After the amazing success of our first awards last year, we knew it was going to be a tall order to go bigger and better this year, but we feel we pulled it off! The Golden Chopsticks Awards has well and truly cemented itself into the culinary calendar.
'What an amazing night, bringing together the good and the great from the oriental food world in one room, with winners covering the broad spectrum of SE Asian food from Chinese, Japanese and Thai to Vietnamese, Malaysian and Korean. It was fantastic to see so many accomplished restaurateurs in the room, alongside the rising stars of the future! It was a real honour to host what is now one of my favourite nights of the year!’