Summer Fancy Food: Korean Food Craze, Gourmet Baking Mixes

We’re still catching our breath – and digesting so many delicious bites – from the Specialty Food Association’s Summer Fancy Food Show earlier this week in New York. Here’s another round of trends and notable new products at the event. (And be sure to check out our first batch of insights here.)

Korean Food Craze Continues

Korean food has made the jump from trending cuisine to a burgeoning category offering opportunities for both U.S. and Korean brands. Street food meal kits, bibimbap rolls and more were on full display throughout the Summer Fancy Food Show.

Mama O’s Premium Kimchi, which has been making Korea’s traditional fermented cabbage condiment since 2007, has “tremendously benefited” from the “soft power” of South Korean government investments in promoting the country’s culture in the States, said founder Kheedom Oh. That support has helped fuel expansion into hot sauces, kimchi pastes and at-home kimchi kits over the past decade.

Along with moving to a new 4,000 sq. ft. facility in recent weeks, Mama O’s landed in over 160 Fresh Market stores throughout the eastern half of the U.S. At the show, Oh was pushing samples of the brand’s white kimchi while allowing attendees to make their own bag of kimchi.

From the other side of the country, Portland, Ore.-based Lucky Foods was also showing off its white kimchi variety and soy-pickled veggies, which are positioned as “kid-friendly” options for spice-adverse consumers.

With distribution in over 10,000 doors, Lucky Foods has operated in the category since 2000 offering frozen spring rolls, pancakes and sauces nationwide. As consumers have grown more accustomed to Korean cuisine, demand is on the rise, said Lucky Foods sales marketing coordinator Heidi Wells, with consumers asking for more regional Korean foods.

Newcomer DORO came to the show with its 3-SKU line of refrigerated street food-inspired meal kits: Mushroom Udon Noodles, Roasted Garlic Udon Noodles and Tteokbokki Cheesy Korean Rice Cakes. The husband-and-wife founding team started with a proof of concept test run last summer and spent the next year crowdfunding $170,000 to scale production. Now, the brand is launching its three-serving pouches in 3-packs for $39.99 online and has passed “key natural channel” review periods as it waits to get on shelf in retail.

It’s not just U.S.-based brands feeding the desire for Korean food. Importers are moving beyond bringing in Korean products for specialty but are launching their own brands to distribute stateside. Importing since 1970, Wang Global was sampling its Seoul To Table brand’s air fryer-ready Tornado Potato skewers at the show while New York-based Kim C’s displayed its heirloom, short-grain rice varietals imported from Korea along with at-home bibimbap kits.

Dessert was in attendance as well with Haitai Ice, the oldest ice cream brand in South Korea, operating a large booth and handing out a multitude of frozen treats including savory ice cream with rice, Korean pear or walnuts. The interest in Korean food culture was part of the reason Haitai Ice was seeking broader distribution from its base in specialty Asian grocers like H-Mart and 99 Ranch into other grocery channels, a company representative said.

Upscale Baking Takes the Cake

First-time exhibitors at the Summer Fancy Food Show whipped up elevated new twists on boxed baking mixes, reflecting rising demand for upscale experiences in home kitchens.

Los Angeles bakery Butter Cake Shoppe debuted a trio of mixes for its signature Pink Cookie, a buttery treat tinged with dragonfruit powder, in Original, Chocolate Chip and Gluten-Free varieties. A package yields 12 to 16 cookies with the addition of butter and an egg and retails for $9 on the bakery’s website.

Portland, Maine-based Kittylamb – a nod to a family nickname for founder Kathryn Jordan – produces a premium line of dessert kits made with fair trade, organic ingredients that are packaged separately in lettered pouches alongside detailed instructions for preparation. The result is a richer take on bake sale staples including brownies, lemon bars and a seasonal gooey pumpkin cake. The products are sold in a few dozen specialty shops throughout New England and online for $9 to $15 per box, depending on the flavor.

Flour & Olive, a Kirkland, Wash.-based startup, created an interactive online cake map featuring more than 70 recipes from 45 countries using one of its four olive oil cake mixes (Almond, Chocolate, Ginger and Vanilla) as a base. The brand was founded by Ghanaian American Estelle Sohne, who seeks to celebrate diversity and “our common humanity” through dessert experiences spanning the globe. A 18.3 oz. box of cake mix has a SRP of $16.95.

BaKIT Box, a Chicago company, offers direct-to-consumer baking kits with hands-on learning opportunities for children. A quarterly subscription box includes three kits with globally inspired recipe cards, pre-measured ingredients and educational games and activities. The latest three-kit bundle features Global Earth Day Cookies, South American Mudslide Cupcakes and East Asian Earthquake Cake and is available for $74.99 on the brand’s website; single activity kits cost $32.99 each.

Peepal People Unveils Vibrant Redesign

South Asian-inspired hot sauce brand Peepal People displayed its newly redesigned labels at the event. Founded by a Pakistani-American husband-and-wife duo, the products pay tribute to zesty achaars (South Asian pickles) and chutneys, packed with pulp and a “way less vinegary bite” than Cholula, Tabasco and the like.

The colorful lineup draws inspiration from the vibrant trucks throughout Pakistan, and now features callouts on the bottle for “zero sugar” and “lower sodium,” co-founder Alyzeh Rizvi told Nosh.

Also based on category insights, the company renamed each of its sauces to showcase the pepper, moving away from Urdu names Bhoot Bangla, Hara Bhara, and Peela Patakha to Garlic Ghost, Mango Jalapeno and Turmeric Habanero, respectively. With the new look, Atlanta-based Peepal People aims to expand its retail footprint beyond specialty grocers into more conventional retail outlets.