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The Korea Times

By Ko Dong-hwan
Celebrity chefs are rolling up their sleeves to infuse their culinary ideas into new menu items for major burger brands in Korea.
The franchise companies are hoping their new creations with popular faces promoting them will turn heads and help them survive the country’s fierce burger market by attracting more attention.
On 21 January, South Korean fast food chain Mom’s Touch unveiled its new products developed by Edward Lee, a finalist from last year’s Netflix series Culinary Class Wars.
The company added a fried chicken dish and two new burgers, with bourbon sauce and bacon jam. They were developed by the Korean-American chef, and are heavily influenced by the southern American cuisine style.
Lee currently runs fine-dining restaurants and more casual dining restaurants in Kentucky and Washington in the United States.
“People in Korea watched me on TV only cooking fancy dishes. But I invest as much energy into casual recipes,” Lee says during a press conference in Seoul.

Lee chose to collaborate with Mom’s Touch because the company had the largest number of restaurants among burger franchises in the country – 1,450 as of this month.
He noted that he wanted to share his food with as much of the Korean public as possible.
“Many Koreans told me they want to come to my restaurant and taste my dishes, but I do not have a restaurant here. I cannot hold a pop-up dinner for thousands of guests, either, which is impossible to do. So I have chosen this collaboration,” Lee says.
“I did not want to use typical Korean sauces like gochujang (spicy red pepper paste) because that would not be unique. I wanted to bring the flavour of the United States with a twist to cater to Korean consumers’ taste buds.”
Mom’s Touch will be selling the Edward Lee Chef Collection menus from 18 February, starting with restaurants in Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggi province.
Kwon Sung-jun, aka Napoli Matfia and the winner of Culinary Class Wars, also teamed up with fast food chain Lotteria making two kinds of mozzarella cheeseburger.
Ingredients include basil, tomato and mozzarella cheese, representing the flavours of Italy as well as Kwon’s culinary style.
Lotteria, which runs the second-highest number of restaurants in the country, launched the new menu last week.
Survival in the domestic burger market is now impossible without a meaningful change. The companies’ collaboration with celebrity chefs is likely to continue this year
Fast food industry official
Kwon runs an Italian fine-dining restaurant in western Seoul. Following his victory in the Netflix show, he also collaborated with BGF Retail to launch pre-cooked meals exclusively for CU, the largest convenience brand in Korea. BGF Retail runs CU.
Earlier this month, KFC Korea launched a commercial starring Culinary Class Wars contestant chef Choi Hyun-seok for its new product.
KFC’s new dishes include two variations of a fried rice bucket topped with chopped chicken fillets and signature sauces.
The chefs joined commercials and recipe development for the major burger franchise brands in South Korea as the domestic fast food world becomes more competitive.
Such competition is no longer limited to the market’s largest and most popular brands like McDonald’s, Burger King, Mom’s Touch and Lotteria.
Other brands, including Shake Shack, Five Guys, Gordon Ramsay Restaurants, Super Duper and Jaggers, have also opened stores in Korea, fuelling local demand for more expensive burgers.
Frank Burger, another domestic franchise company that purports to offer authentic American-style premium burgers, surpassed the 700th-restaurant milestone in June and signed an official partnership with English Premier League football club Tottenham Hotspur in October.

Companies such as No Brand Burger under Shinsegae Food promote affordability over premium quality.
Among these brands, those advertised by popular chefs go the extra mile, as these celebrities have both popularity and expertise.
The domestic fast food market remains huge as it retains a relatively consistent volume of customers while other local dine-in restaurants have seen a significant drop in sales because of a surge in market prices.
The unstable political atmosphere in South Korea since president Yoon Suk-yeol’s martial law fiasco last month has made citizens spend less, with more people seeking cheaper food choices like those available at fast food brands.
Industry experts say that setting itself apart from the competition is the way to survive, and hiring chefs from Culinary Class Wars serves that purpose.
“Lotteria is expected to register sales of 1 trillion won (US$696 million) in 2024 due to its products that successfully distinguished themselves from their rival products,” a fast food franchise company official says. Lotteria sales also surpassed 1 trillion won in 2017.
“Unlike in the past, survival in the domestic burger market is now impossible without a meaningful change. The companies’ collaboration with celebrity chefs is likely to continue this year.”
Read the original story at The Korea Times.


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Lifestyle

Food & Drink

Korean fast food companies are working with famous chefs, including Culinary Class War runner-up Edward Lee, to promote their products


Korean fast food companies are working with famous chefs, including Culinary Class War runner-up Edward Lee, to promote their products.


Top Korean chefs bring culinary twist to nation’s competitive burger market

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Korean fast food companies are working with famous chefs, including Culinary Class War runner-up Edward Lee, to promote their products

Korean fast food companies are working with famous chefs, including Culinary Class War runner-up Edward Lee, to promote their products