Food entrepreneur finds new chances in US

Suji’s Cuisine Chief Inspiration Officer Park Su-ji / Courtesy of Suji’s Cuisine

By Kim Jae-won

Suji’s Cuisine Chief Inspiration Officer Park Su-ji moved to Omaha, Nebraska one-and-a-half years ago. She knew nothing of the small city, and had not even heard of it before, except for the fact that it was the center of the U.S. agricultural industry, and a state university based there provides some of the world’s top research services.

The founder of Suji’s Deli, a well-known brunch restaurant in Itaewon, turned her eyes to the U.S. market, to find new opportunities for her food product development and restaurant business.

“They had the world’s best scientists and state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities. I explained that I wanted to sell fresh Korean bulgogi with no MSG, all natural,” said Park in a video interview with The Korea Times from the U.S. city last week.

However, it was not as easy as she thought. First of all, they had to find out ways to keep cooked bulgogi fresh in refrigerators for a month. Another challenge was to ensure the grilled beef remained soft after being cooked.

The research team in the University of Nebraska Lincoln finally figured out how to keep products fresh in refrigerators for four weeks and preserve the taste. Thanks to the technology which required about three years of research and experiments, Suji’s Cuisine successfully started to supply them to Costo’s San Francisco outlets from this year.

“The feedback from customers is good. They like to eat it with rice or a taco. It sells at $16.99 per pack.”

Suji’s Cuisine said exact sales data is not available yet.

Park said sales of Korean food such as kimchi are growing fast in the U.S as more and more consumers are looking for healthy food.

Park said her business is not just selling food in the U.S., but exchanging the culture of the two countries. Her Itaewon restaurant opened 10 years ago injecting American flavors in its sandwiches. Now she aims to spread Korean cuisine in the U.S. with the bulgogi products.

“What we are doing is decoding Korean food for the U.S. market. You should be familiar with the trends as well as its language.”

Asked about the secret of her success in business, she said she is attentive to market circumstances.

“I am not afraid of packing my bag to move to new places where business chances lie. I do not hesitate or look back.”