The final of our Casual Dining Competition crowned Kana Kana the winners, celebrating the flavours of Japanese street food and home cooking. The winning team received an engraved pan, and their dining concept will be rolled out across Lexington’s customer sites.
Kana Kana was brought to life by chef Mike Carter and his dedicated team, following memories of his travels in Japan, eventually meeting his wife there. Traditional dishes such as okonomiyaki were twisted and skewered, embracing western ‘on-the-go’ style food. Flavour was front and centre, backed with a colourful, exciting and vibrant brand.
Now in its fourth year, our casual dining competition brings together teams from across the Business & Industry brand, tasking them with curating a brand-new casual dining concept from scratch. Full menus, branding, uniforms, marketing strategy, and mobilisation plans are all key parts of the presentation and judging element for each concept. The seven brands that reach the final will see their concepts introduced to sites across the wider business.
A total of 26 of our teams submitted written entries. From these, 12 teams were shortlisted to present their concepts directly to the round one judging panel. Following the showcase, seven standout teams were selected to progress to the final, held at OKN1 – a collaborative kitchen and award-winning dining venue located within New City College, Hackney, which also serves as the base for Lexington’s Chef School. 200 clients and guests attended the finals and sampled food concepts developed by the finalists, voting for their favourite brand concept, which accounted for 25% of the final voting score.
The seven finalists in the Casual Dining Competition faced a distinguished panel of industry professionals, including:
Matt Wood, managing director of Lexington, said; “This year’s competition was yet another incredible showcase of the talented and creative minds we have here at Lexington. I am always blown away by the all-round quality and seeing the evolution of these concepts come to life.”
“Now in our fourth year of the competition, 20 concepts initiated from this event have been introduced to our Lexington sites. Customers and clients love it, as do we. Getting to showcase our homegrown talent on such a stage is humbling and gratifying, and I hope gives our teams the well-deserved recognition they work so hard to achieve. The standards are so high that any one of these concepts would sell by the bucket load at any London food market.”
“We’re thrilled to have been chosen amongst such fierce competition” said Mike Carter from winning team Kana Kana. “The food we presented was made with love and authenticity, and to see that translate in the feedback we received was hugely gratifying. Domo arigato gozaimasu!”
Broadcaster and entrepreneur George Lamb, who was judging the concepts, said “I was astounded by the quality, excellence and passion. Each concept presented such heartfelt beautiful stories and they really shone through in the cooking. Everyone should be incredibly proud.”
The other six finalists created original, diverse concepts ranging from an allergen-free take on traditional chicken shop favourites, authentic Filipino cuisine and Korean street food.
