CU to Offer Healthy Meals with 'Meal Price' Chef Lee Mi-young

Chef Im Mi-Young and 'Healthy Food' Product Strategy
Participation in Ready Meal Product Development... Scheduled for Release Next Month

CU, a convenience store operated by BGF Retail, announced on the 16th that it will collaborate with chef Lee Mi-young, who appeared on the recently popular cooking show 'Heukbaek Yorisai' (Black and White Chef), to launch healthy food products. CU also plans to support child-related promotions together with chef Lee Mi-young.

With 15 years of experience, chef Lee Mi-young was recognized for her skills by ranking in the Top 15 on Heukbaek Yorisai. In the first round of the competition, she received high praise from judge chef Baek Jong-won and Michelin 3-star chef Ahn Seong-jae, who said her dishes "evoked memories and moved me."

CU, a convenience store operated by BGF Retail, announced on the 16th that it will collaborate with chef Lee Mi-young, who appeared on the recently popular cooking show "Black and White Chef," to offer healthy food products. Chef Lee Mi-young (left) and a CU representative are taking a commemorative photo. [Photo by BGF Retail]

Her popularity continued even after the show ended. A retirement video of chef Lee Mi-young uploaded last month recorded a cumulative 1.28 million views within a month.

CU has set its 2025 product strategy as "healthy food," focusing on Baek Jong-won's ready meals, which represent the convenience store industry, and is collaborating with chef Lee Mi-young.

Chef Lee Mi-young, who has long prepared healthy meals for students, will directly participate in recipe development for CU to create convenience store products. Starting this month, CU will begin developing side dishes and ready meals focused on low-sodium and low-irritation with chef Lee Mi-young, and plans to sequentially launch various new products next month.

Additionally, CU has appointed chef Lee Mi-young as the promotional model for the Child Meal Card for low-income children and the 'iCU' system, which has been running since 2017 to prevent child disappearance and abuse.

Lee Eun-gwan, head of the Strategy MD Team at BGF Retail, said, "Seeing chef Lee Mi-young's long dedication to children's meals, we judged her to be the right person to help with CU's healthy food product strategy. We will do our best to create a healthy convenience store CU together with chef Lee Mi-young, who is a top expert in the field."

Previously, CU collaborated with chef Kwon Seong-jun of 'Napoli Mafia,' the winner of Heukbaek Yorisai, to release a chestnut tiramisu cup. This product sold out within 20 minutes during six reservation sales conducted on CU's own app, PocketCU. The cumulative sales have reached 120,000 units so far.