Game Companies Compete in the Kitchen for Charity

Game publishers have been cooking for charity! As part of gamescom asia x Thailand Game Show 2025, the first ever Charity Cook-Off was held in Bangkok on October 13, with 10 contestants from the game industry flexing their kitchen skills for Chef Willment Leong, the hot-tempered celebrity chef who hosts Hell’s Kitchen Thailand.

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The event was livestreamed in support of two charities, one global and one local: Doctors Without Borders, and the Bangkok Community Help Foundation.

Among the lineup of contestants was… me! Representing IGN Japan, I felt the pressure to bring the spice, doing my best to replicate Chef Willment’s signature menu that blends the Western dish salmon confit with a Thai twist – green curry cream sauce, crispy chicken skin crust, handmade ailoi, poached egg and rocket salad.

Bonus points were awarded for adding a videogame twist, so my dish was populated by cute little edible Pokémon and a Mario-themed salad.

Here’s the full list of contestants:

• Adorapixel – Gordon Van Dyke
• Powell Group – Jay Powell
• Raw Fury – Johan Toresson
• Miniclip – Govind Cacciatore
• Wired Production – Leo Zullo
• Joystick Venture – Ivan Carrillo
• IGN – Daniel Robson
• PlayPark – Jham (Sattra Viriyacharoentham)
• AGP – Lili Zang
• Poki – Romy Halfweeg

The event was hosted by gaming investment company Agora Gaming Partners and gamescom asia organizer Koelnmesse. It was held in the professional-grade kitchen of Dusit Thani College, as seen on cooking shows like Netflix’s The Maverick Academy. The college also provided volunteer assistants – my assistant Tia was awesome, and helped make sure I didn’t set fire to or slice off anything important.

As game media, we often review creations made by game companies, so it was a thrill to be on the other side and have the judges rate my cooking! Cooking under pressure, surrounded by cameras and under a tight time limit in an unfamiliar kitchen, was an experience I’ll never forget. I didn’t win (my salmon was a little pink), but I didn’t embarrass myself horribly either, and I was especially proud of my attempt at green curry cream sauce – I’ll tinker and perfect that recipe at home for sure.

A digest video will be published soon, but you can check out the archive of the full livestream here right now.