Isaan Project Wins Lexington Catering’s Casual Dining Competition 2026

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17 July 2026

The final of Lexington Catering’s Casual Dining Competition crowned The Isaan Project the winners, celebrating bold flavours and culinary traditions of Northeastern Thailand. The winning team received an engraved trophy, and its dining concept will be rolled out across Lexington’s customer sites.

The Isaan Project was brought to life by chef Kitty Whiteley and her Lexington Independents team at Kent College. Inspired by the region of Northeastern Thailand where Chef Kitty grew up, the concept brings together the traditions, recipes and communal spirit that define everyday life in Isaan. At its heart is Chef Kitty’s “Khun-Ya” (Grandma), whose handwritten recipe notebook has been passed through generations, preserving the dishes, techniques and stories that continue to inspire food served today.

Now in its fifth year, Lexington’s 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 five brands that reached the final will see their concepts introduced to sites across the wider business. The other four finalists created original, diverse concepts drawing on culinary traditions from Jamaica, Shaanxi Province in China, Singapore and Venice.

A total of 29 Lexington teams submitted written entries at the outset of the competition, outlining the scope of their concept. From these, 12 semi-finalists were shortlisted to present their concepts directly to the round one judging panel. Following the showcase, five 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. More than 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 finalists in the Casual Dining Competition faced a distinguished panel of industry professionals, including:

• James Golding, group chef director at Rockwater and a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Culinary Arts, with a career spanning The Savoy, Le Caprice and Soho House New York, and formerly chef director of THE PIG hotel group.
• Dhruv Baker, winner of MasterChef 2010, author of award-winning debut book Spice Layers of Flavour and founder of one of the most awarded charcuterie companies in the UK, Tempus Foods. Judge for the Great Taste Awards, The World Cheese Awards and regularly invited to be a presenter on various TV shows and live food events.
• Mike Carter, chef and creator of Japanese street food Kana Kana, winner of Lexington’s Casual Dining Competition 2025, bringing first-hand experience of competing and succeeding in the event.
• Tom Geoffrey, founder of Barang, a restaurant concept bringing Cambodian-inspired open-fire cooking to London’s Borough Market, with previous experience of bringing his bold Khmer-inspired dishes to venues including Bai Sor in Phnom Penh and Carousel, London.

Sean Ritson, Managing Director of Lexington, said: "This year's Casual Dining Competition was a demonstration of innovation, collaboration and authenticity. Every year the bar gets higher and this year our teams did an exceptional job of telling their stories through food. The competition has evolved to showcase some outstanding regional cuisine and that makes it even more special.”

Ritson added: "Now in our fifth year, 30 concepts have been rolled out across Lexington sites, broadening our food offering and taking our customers on a journey around the world. This competition is unlike anything else in the industry. It expands the breadth of what we offer our customer base, nurtures our talent and reflects what makes our people and our business distinctive."

Kitty Whiteley, Head Pastry Chef at Lexington Independents and winning Team Lead at The Isaan Project, said: “Winning this competition is incredibly overwhelming. Fire from Isaan, stories from home – that's what this concept is built on. I wanted to bring the bold flavours of Northeastern Thailand to a new audience and represent my family’s recipe and my grandma’s legacy.”

Whiteley added: “It is my grandma’s cooking and recipes that fuelled this award win and I’m really proud that her memory lives on. She is behind every dish and to have that recognised means everything to us.”

Dhruv Baker, winner of MasterChef 2010, entrepreneur and TV personality, and concept judge, said: “The Isaan Project is a commercially ready-to-go concept that offers diners an insight into traditional family recipes from a specific region in Thailand, and that's what makes it so magical.”

Picture: A photo of the winning catering team, The Isaan Project. Credit: Jodi Hinds.

Article written by Dave Mapps | Published 17 July 2026

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