The Eat-Japan Sushi Awards aims to promote the excellence of Japanese cuisine and food and drink products to people in the U.K. and beyond. It began as a public contest for original sushi recipes as The Original Sushi Competition (2001-2005). Since 2005 it has come to be recognised as the world’s leading sushi event. The Eat-Japan Sushi Awards is the only international competition to bring the world’s top sushi chefs together under one roof as the Seven Sushi Samurai in order to compete, armed with their most outstanding sushi creations, for a chance to be honoured as the champion of the international sushi circuit by being awarded the ‘Sushi of the Year’.

The seven leading chefs are all acclaimed in their home countries. They have either won sushi contests in their country of residence or have been selected by our supporting organization, the All Japan Sushi Association, one of the world’s biggest and most influential sushi restaurant associations, and Eat-Japan.

This year’s Seven Sushi Samurai

The Seven Sushi chefs reveal their sushi on the event stage to a celebrity judging panel. They will then move to their positions at their individual mini sushi-counters to serve their sushi to the gathered audience. For many, this is a rare opportunity to watch some stunning sushi skills live and up close. The guests have an important job to do too: they need to taste each of the seven sushi entry and then cast a vote for whichever is their favourite. These votes will be counted alongside those of the judging panel. The sushi that gets most votes will be awarded the title of ‘Sushi of the Year’.

Last year’s entries
Past Sushi of the Year winners

In recent years, sushi contests have come to be held in cities all over the world. The Eat-Japan Sushi Awards, however, enjoys unrivalled recognition to the point that contestants are vying for the right to compete for this worldwide competition. In response to this, the Sushi Awards has expanded in scale, and invited contest winners from leading sushi nations such as Japan and the U.S.A., from countries with rapidly developing sushi cultures such as Russia, and many other locations such as Scandinavia, Spain and Italy.

Each year guests are treated to the world's most delicious sushi, made fresh before their eyes by the Sushi Samurai, a Japanese food and sushi buffet, complimentary Japanese beer and sake and a goody bag packed full of foodie stuff. You can purchase your tickets online now.

Sushi Workshop

In previous years, the Eat-Japan Sushi Awards have been preceded by sushi workshops which have been extremely well-received, even by chefs not from Japanese restaurants. Aimed at professional chefs, these workshops are a valuable educational experience that teach the fundamentals of preparing safe and delicious sushi.