[Easy Home Meals] Gourmet of the World

Travel the World Through Flavors from Western to Chinese Cuisine

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Hye-seon] World cuisines have landed at home through ready-to-eat meals. Especially last year, as more people chose to enjoy dishes from around the world at home instead of traveling abroad, sales surged dramatically. The products range widely from granola to pizza, sweet and sour pork, menbosha, fish and chips, and burritos.

Global Dining Tables as Ready Meals

SPC Paris Baguette launched First Class Kitchen in October last year, introducing a Western-style ‘Western Meal’ line that saw daily sales nearly quintuple within three months. Recently, they strengthened the brand by launching a new ‘Asian Cuisine’ line focusing on Asian foods.

The First Class Kitchen Western Meal products include seven signature items such as ‘Hamburg Steak Rice,’ ‘Chicken & Shrimp Rose Pasta,’ and ‘Neapolitan Tomato Pasta,’ along with ‘Mushroom Soup & Bread Bowl Kit’ and ‘Mini Native Yeast Baguette.’ The ‘Asian Cuisine’ products feature items like ‘Spicy Sweet Crispy Chicken,’ ‘Authentic Ganpunggi,’ and ‘Authentic Jjajangmyeon,’ developed by a team of former professional chefs. These maintain the authentic taste and flavor while minimizing cooking steps to highlight the convenience of ready meals.

Ottogi’s five types of world cuisine ready meals recorded sales of about 6 billion KRW last year, an increase of over 80% compared to the previous year. Ottogi’s Oz Kitchen ‘Fish and Chips’ combines battered and fried cod fish sticks with French fries. The three types of ‘Real Mexican Burrito’ emphasize the chewy tortilla and savory cheese, enhanced with sauce and mozzarella cheese. ‘Menbosha’ features a rich texture with plump shrimp meat and crispy bread.

The Era of 100 Billion KRW Frozen Pizza Market

The frozen pizza market is also steadily growing. According to Nielsen Korea, the domestic frozen pizza market grew from 67.6 billion KRW in 2019 to 92 billion KRW last year. The market size is expected to reach 110 billion KRW this year. CJ CheilJedang’s ‘Gourmet Premium Pizza,’ launched in December last year, sold over one million units within two months. Gourmet Premium Pizza improved dough, sauce, toppings, and cheese to address consumer complaints about hard crusts, poor toppings, and boring menus.

CJ CheilJedang’s ‘Gourmet Crispy and Chewy Sweet and Sour Pork’ maximizes crispy texture. They developed a special batter based on CJ CheilJedang’s milling expertise and applied ‘multi-heating’ technology to fry the product and then bake it again in the oven.

Granola and soups are also gaining attention as breakfast substitutes. Since Dongseo Foods launched the first granola cereal in Korea in 2008,

they have introduced various flavored granola products centered on two lines: ‘Post Granola’ and ‘Post Golden Granola.’

Maeil Dairies’ Sangha Kitchen offers three types of soups: mushroom cream soup, clam chowder soup, and potato cream soup.