Lotte Food, 'Shefood'... "Easy and Delicious Like Anyone Can Be a Chef" [The World of Convenience Foods]

Seoyunsang Lotte Food HMR CM Team Manager
Hwang Seonghun Lotte Central Research Institute Frozen Food Team Senior Researcher

'Chef Food' Preserving the Original Taste of Ingredients
Entering the Frozen Meal Kit Market

Seoyun Sang, Manager of the Home Meal Replacement (HMR) CM Team at Lotte Food (left), and Hwang Seonghun, Senior Researcher of the Frozen Food Team at Lotte Central Research Institute (right), are holding dumpling products from Lotte Food's Chef Food. Photo by Lotte Food

[Asia Economy Reporter Song Seung-yoon] "Even those with little cooking experience can create dishes with chef-level completeness."

Seo Yoon-sang, head of the Home Meal Replacement (HMR) CM team at Lotte Foods, said in an interview with Asia Economy on the 27th, "Lotte Foods' HMR brand 'Chefood' aims to provide premium quality convenience meals that anyone can easily enjoy, just like the brand slogan 'Anyone can become a chef'."

Launched in 2009, Chefood has grown into a comprehensive convenience meal brand with a diverse product lineup by integrating all of Lotte Foods' convenience meal brands. Recently, in collaboration with Professor Han Young-sil's Customized Food Research Lab at Sookmyung Women's University and Lotte Central Research Institute, they introduced seven types of frozen meal kits. Last month, they also decided on a strategic investment of 6.5 billion KRW in the startup 'Food Assemble,' which has the second or third largest meal kit production capacity in Korea.

Hwang Sung-hoon, senior researcher of the frozen food team at Lotte Central Research Institute, introduced, "The strength of Chefood products lies in preserving the original texture and taste of the raw ingredients. In particular, 'Chefood Sirloin Pork Cutlet' and 'Chefood Meat Dumplings' are representative premium quality products."

There were challenges during product development as well. Seo explained, "To realize differentiated quality products, we went through multiple trials and errors from the initial planning stage to production. For the dumpling products, we hand-made over 5,000 pieces to perfect the optimal mixture, and only after five rounds of consumer evaluations could we launch the product." Researcher Hwang also said, "We once had to revert all the mixture ratios we had devoted six months to back to their original state after receiving harsh feedback from consumer surveys. Afterwards, by adjusting the ingredient ratios and conducting another consumer survey, we eventually received positive evaluations. We continue to listen to consumers' opinions and improve quality."

They emphasized, "Chefood's goal is to supply consumers with better quality and delicious products, providing an enjoyable cooking experience and a happy meal. In the future, we plan to expand the lineup by releasing premium products with professional restaurant quality that preserve the texture and original taste of whole unprocessed ingredients in the Tong series."

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