[Content Commerce] Tomato Sauce with 15 Years of Culinary Secrets... A Sensation in Sales

Sharing Proven Restaurant Recipes for Aspiring Entrepreneurs
Hyunmok Choi, CEO of 'Manwon Yori Choi Siblings,' Shares Insights
15 Years in the Food Industry... Recipes Explained Down to the Gram

"I am generously sharing the recipes I have mastered over more than a decade in the food service industry. The majority of my viewers are men in their 30s to 50s who are interested in running their own businesses."

'Ten Thousand Won Cooking Choi Siblings,' operated by CEO Hyunmok Choi, is a YouTube channel that anyone preparing to enter the food service industry has likely heard of at least once. Over the past 15 years, he has run various businesses, including pizza, pasta, pilaf, steak, pubs, and night market stalls, and shares his personally acquired cooking secrets and recipes in detail, down to the gram. The channel has approximately 390,000 subscribers, with a cumulative view count of 170 million.

Hyunmok Choi, CEO of Manwon Yori and the Choi siblings, provided by Cafe24.

CEO Choi began his culinary journey in high school. He entered the food service industry at the age of 22, right after completing his military service, and has built up 15 years of experience as a culinary expert. At one point, he operated three restaurants simultaneously, generating annual sales of 700 to 800 million won. His main menu item at the time was tomato pasta.

The turning point came during the COVID-19 pandemic. As social distancing measures reduced the number of people dining out, the entire food service market was shaken, and CEO Choi was forced to close all three of his restaurants at once. He was left with hundreds of millions of won in debt. At that time, it was his older sister who reached out to help him. Thanks to her, CEO Choi was able to get back on his feet. He explained, "To repay my sister, I started teaching her how to cook and recorded the process on video, which became the beginning of the 'Ten Thousand Won Cooking Choi Siblings' channel. Initially, it was just a casual sharing, but I realized there was strong demand for cooking methods among viewers, so I started releasing commercial-use recipes that could be used for business." Currently, CEO Choi operates the channel on his own.

Looking at the channel's subscribers, there is a high proportion of male viewers. Because he reveals recipes that have been improved and verified over years by incorporating actual customer feedback to increase return visits, the channel is especially popular among men in their 40s and 50s considering self-employment after retirement, as well as men in their 30s aspiring to enter the food service industry.

The most popular video is the tomato sauce recipe content he used while running a pasta restaurant. After this video was released, the number of subscribers skyrocketed from just 2,000 to 150,000. In the video, CEO Choi explains in detail which part of the bacon to use and how long to fry it, which store-bought sauce to select, and how many grams of each additional ingredient to add, drawing significant interest from subscribers. As of now, the video has recorded 16.72 million views.

Another factor behind the channel's popularity is the use of 'shorts'-short-form videos-to deliver information. CEO Choi said, "Recently, viewers tend to avoid long videos, and if you create shorts content that matches the algorithm and trends while highlighting your own character, you can grow quickly. The advantage is that you can convey the most important points as quickly as possible. However, due to the nature of cooking content, I also plan to upload longer videos in the future to share more detailed information."

Hyunmok Choi, CEO of Ten Thousand Won Cooking and the Choi Siblings, provided by Cafe24

Responding to viewer requests to taste his food, CEO Choi began selling products last month. By utilizing the 'YouTube Shopping' function through the global e-commerce platform Cafe24, he is selling products through the 'Store' tab on the channel and within each piece of content.

CEO Choi explained, "Because I deal with commercial-use recipes that require complex and diverse ingredients, there are many viewers who want to taste the food and self-employed viewers who want to purchase products for their businesses, so I started the commerce business." The store also offers the 'tomato sauce' product, which was the top seller. Large quantities are available for self-employed restaurant owners.

CEO Choi plans to focus on producing content for self-employed individuals and viewers interested in cooking. He also intends to introduce products such as his own rich beef bone soup, gochujang pork belly, and chicken breast in connection with his content. CEO Choi stated, "By introducing recipes and products that can truly help self-employed business owners in their operations, I aim to grow this channel into a platform where anyone can learn to cook delicious food."

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