Home > Culture > Food & Travel

Homestyle K-food becomes a staple overseas, but infrastructure and support still limited

Published: 27 Mar. 2026, 08:15

Employees line up to eat samgyetang, ginseng chicken soup, at a cafeteria at a company in Poland in 2025. [OURHOME]

From office cafeterias in the United States to home kitchens across the world, K-food is becoming part of everyday life. Korean food is no longer just a global trend but is becoming a daily staple, as demand for home-style Korean dishes grows alongside the rise of K-content.

On a recent lunchtime at a cafeteria run by Korean food service company Ourhome at a global company in Michigan, employees lined up well before lunch on days when samgyetang, or ginseng chicken soup, was on the menu.

“On days when they serve samgyetang or Korean-style sweet and crispy fried chicken, employees who arrive early share how many portions remain, so others head to lunch earlier than usual,” an employee at the company said.

Ourhome operates the cafeteria and prepares six dishes from around the world each day to serve more than 1,200 foreign employees.

Korean dishes now make up about half of the menu. Employees increasingly request dishes such as bulgogi, or marinated grilled beef, bibimbap, or mixed rice with vegetables, samgyetang and budae jjigae, or spicy sausage stew, as well as street foods like tteokbokki, or spicy rice cakes, gimbap, or seaweed rice rolls and Korean-style hot dogs.

The share of employees choosing Korean dishes for lunch rose 143 percent in 2025 compared to 2022.

A picture of samgyetang, ginseng chicken soup [JOONGANG ILBO]

“The popularity of ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ (2025) even led us to install an automated gimbap machine and create a separate station,” said Bang Sun-young, head of Ourhome’s U.S. catering branch. “Requests for takeout and even for recipes have also increased.”

Interest that began with K-content, such as K-pop and Korean dramas, now extends to food and reaches dining tables around the world. Korean instant noodles, or ramyeon, have moved beyond an occasional snack and are increasingly eaten as a regular meal, while snacks have gained wider popularity.

“In the past, people ate pasta on special occasions, but as media exposure increased, it became a familiar everyday meal,” said Lee Hong-joo, a professor of consumer economics at Sookmyung Women’s University. “Korean food now follows a similar path and is becoming a part of daily life for foreigners.”

Korean food first entered the global market in the early 2000s when the government promoted dishes such as bibimbap and bulgogi through its “globalization of Korean cuisine” campaign.

Ramyeon on display at a large supermarket in Seoul on March 25 [NEWS1]

It gained momentum in the 2010s as Korean actors and idols rose to prominence through dramas and music, which increased demand for processed foods such as ramyeon and dumplings. Food companies, including CJ, Nongshim and Pulmuone, expanded overseas and built factories to target consumers directly.

Industry officials say Korean food is entering a new stage of global growth, driven by rising interest in home-style Korean meals. Younger people in the United States increasingly share Korean recipes online. Soy sauce-braised eggs, known for their addictive taste, have become popular as recipes spread online.

Robert Casterline, an American influencer and art dealer, shares videos of himself cooking Korean dishes such as dumplings and spicy pork stir-fry, drawing hundreds of thousands of views per video

“Outside major cities, there are not many Korean restaurants, so I started cooking Korean food myself,” Casterline said. “Selling products like gochujang, hot pepper paste, with recipes would help more foreigners try Korean cuisine.”

Visitors take photos in front of a display featuring characters eating ramyeon from the Netflix animated film “KPop Demon Hunters” at a festival in Gumi, North Gyeongsang, on Nov. 7, 2025. [NEWS1]

Despite its growing popularity, the infrastructure to support Korean food’s global expansion remains limited.

The government runs various support programs, but it does not compile accurate export statistics. Current data only includes food produced in Korea and exported abroad, while it excludes products made and sold at overseas factories run by Korean companies.

“Global food companies usually operate local production facilities because localization and freshness matter,” a food industry representative said. “Korea still overlooks this, so it cannot even measure the true scale of exports, which makes it difficult to develop effective policies.”

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY CHOI HYUN-JU, LIM SUN-YOUNG AND NOH YU-RIM [[email protected]]