Award winning cuisine

TOKYO, JAPAN -- Last week, the USA Rice Federation conducted the final hands-on cooking competition of the second U.S. Medium Grain Menu Chef Contest at the Chubo Shiodome, a kitchen facility for foodservice companies and chefs here.

The contest drew a great deal of excitement with 137 recipe entries in the professional chef category, and 379 recipes in the new student chef category.

In the final head-to-head competition, eight professional chef finalists prepared their menus and presented them to six judges for evaluation.  The judges included Chris Crutchfield and Michael Rue representing the USA Rice Federation.

Mr. Akira Kawakubo of the Nakamura Culinary School won the top prize in the professional category for his "Amazing Mabo Rice Bowl" that Crutchfield described as "a fantastic fusion of Chinese and Italian cuisine -- both of which are very popular in Japan. The dish also showcased the versatility of Calrose rice which has been a focus of our promotion campaign in Japan."  Three student recipes were also recognized for excellence.

Chris Crutchfield (l) congratulates Top Chef Akira Kawakubo

USA Rice's Bill Farmer joined Crutchfield and Rue handing out awards before a crowd that included 40 traders and media representatives.  The ceremony was followed by a reception featuring four menus utilizing U.S.-grown medium grain rice.

"Contests like these are valuable because they help introduce delicious and versatile U.S. medium grain rice to the Japanese foodservice industry," said Rue.  "I always enjoy seeing the creative recipes the chefs come up with for our rice.  The dishes this year were especially exciting."

Contact:  Bill Farmer (832) 302-6710

From left: Chuck Wilson, Abdou Kasso, Carl Brothers and Ben Noble

LITTLE ROCK, AR -- Earlier this week, the Arkansas Rice Federation hosted Mr. Abdou Kasso, advisor to the President of Niger and High Commissioner for 3N (Nigeriens Nourish Nigeriens), to discuss the possible resumption of U.S. rice sales into Niger.

Niger, a landlocked West African country of 17.5 million people, is about the size of California and Louisiana combined.  They had been a modest U.S. rice customer in the past, but have not purchased any U.S. rice for the last two years, with most of their demand being met by Asia.

Mr. Kasso was attending last week's White House Africa Summit with his president and decided to extend his stay to learn more about the U.S. rice industry and look into resuming long grain purchases for his country.

While here, Mr. Kasso met with Arkansas Rice Executive Director Ben Noble, and toured Riceland Foods and the University of Arkansas Rice Research Center in Stuttgart.

"We were pleased to host Mr. Kasso and learn more about the needs of the Government of Niger," said Riceland's Senior Vice President Carl Brothers after the meetings.  "Africa has been an important trading partner for U.S. rice in the past and we hope to build on that relationship moving forward."

Noble said Mr. Kasso was also interested in learning about U.S. agronomic practices in the hopes of improving his nation's food security - one of the main purposes of the 3N organization.

"With Niger's anticipated population growth and the climate challenges they face, I suspect they will always need to import rice from somewhere," Noble said.  "Sharing information and improving our relationship can only be beneficial to us in the long run."

Contact:  Michael Klein (703) 236-1458

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