Lotte Department Store Opens Pop-up Store for Ready-made Side Dish Specialty Shop 'Mr. Cook'

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Hye-seon] Lotte Department Store will hold a pop-up store for the premium ready-made side dish specialty store ‘Master Cook’ from the 15th to the 21st on the basement 1st floor of the Jamsil branch.

‘Master Cook’ sells over 200 kinds of side dishes and dishes including Western cuisine, Korean cuisine, and easy-to-cook meals made with recipes by Master Chef Lee Sang-jung and Chef Heo Young-boon. Instead of artificial chemical seasonings, they use fruit to flavor the dishes and plan to attract customers with a secret method that preserves the meat texture and flavor by using a maturation refrigerator.

After the official store opens, they will offer a regular subscription service for side dishes, delivering side dishes once a week for a total of four times over a month. The subscription service is well composed of side dishes, soups, and main dishes priced between 80,000 and 100,000 KRW, and it has the advantage of being available at more than 30% cheaper than the regular price.

The representative master chef dishes include Carbonara Pork Cutlet (15,500 KRW), Potato Filled with Red Tilapia (17,000 KRW), Hungarian Goulash Soup (7,000 KRW), and Avocado Soup (7,000 KRW), totaling 10 types. The special Korean side dishes made with a secret sauce include Green Onion Bulgogi (22,000 KRW), Mackerel Kimchi Roll (15,000 KRW), and Seasoned Flower Crab (18,000 KRW), totaling 9 types.

Lotte Department Store is opening this pop-up store because the demand for purchasing side dishes at department stores has increased as more people eat home-cooked meals due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic. In the second half of last year, Lotte Department Store’s side dish sales grew by 21% compared to the first half. Before COVID-19, small packaging for 1-2 meals was common, but after COVID-19, demand for bulk packaging increased.

Since the end of last year, Lotte Department Store has continuously introduced side dish and meal kit brands. At the end of last year, they opened ‘Gebang Sikdang’ and the premium side dish specialty store ‘Seowol Sik’ at the main branch, and ‘Pyeongchang Ae Kimchi’ and the meal kit specialty brand ‘Entree’ at the Nowon branch.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.