The Original Sushi Competition was founded, in the words Mr Kunihiro Kondo, the head of its committee, "as an effort to combine the imagination and ingredients of the West with centuries of traditional Japanese cuisine to inspire a totally new sushi, a British sushi". Entrants were asked to create their own original sushi recipes and more than 500 recipes were sent in from people of a broad range of ages, ethnicity's and backgrounds, many of whom were blessed with great imaginations and a significant amount of whom were from children (largely as a result of an Original Sushi mini-event held at Henwick primary school in Eltham, at which pupils had great fun learning about and tasting sushi).
The competition's final event was held on the 19th of March, 2002 at the Matsuri St. James's restaurant, where the dishes of the finalists were displayed for guests, including the Japanese Ambassador, contestants, members of the press and judges to admire and discuss. The 6 judges, which included Lesley Waters of BBC TV's 'Ready Steady Cook!' were challenged by the extremely high standard of the entries and this delayed their decision by more than an hour, but finally the award ceremony took place and in her speech after the ceremony Ms. Waters spoke of the significance of the event and how honoured she felt to have been involved.