Rice is a staple for South Koreans, but as New York restaurateur Bobby Yoon explains it, the connection is deeper, almost spiritual.
“We need the perfect bowl of rice for each meal,” said Yoon, whose recently opened barbecue joint in Manhattan is an offshoot of Haeundae Somunnan Amso Galbijip, his grandfather’s venerable Busan institution.
“It doesn’t have a flavor, but there is also a certain umami to it when cooked well,” he said.
Perfecting rice that is integral to such everyday dishes as bulgogi and kimchi jjigae needs the best cooker possible, one that produces perfect grains without scorching them. The countertop appliances are given as gifts when people get married or move to a new house, and can symbolize wealth and good health for the family.
By far the most popular brand is the Cuckoo, which emits a distinctive sound similar to the call of the bird it is named after as it releases steam during the cooking process.
That obsession and stranglehold on the market has made Cuckoo Holdings founder Koo Ja-sin a billionaire. The company controls about 70 percent of South Korea’s market for rice cookers — easily outselling domestic rival Cuchen — and exports to 25 countries, mostly in Asia.
“The market is not huge, and there were already technology barriers when other big brands were looking to penetrate it,” said Yang Ji-hye, an analyst at Meritz Securities in Seoul. “Cuckoo seized the niche market and has grown big.”
Koo, 77, started the firm in 1978 after a brief career in politics, serving as secretary to a local lawmaker. He began by manufacturing rice cookers for large companies such as LG Electronics.
After orders dwindled to a trickle during the Asian financial crisis, he started his own brand in 1998.
The public latched on to the “do Cuckoo” catchphrase from the firm’s television commercials and sales quickly grew.
Cuckoo shares have returned 127 percent, including reinvested dividends, since its 2014 initial public offering in Seoul, outpacing the 20 percent return of the Kospi Index of 780 South Korean companies.
“Koreans believe that what’s made of rice is good for your health,” said Jun Kyung-woo, coauthor of the book Dining in Seoul. “When someone feels unwell, they even attribute that to not eating enough rice.”
Koo has a net worth of US$1.1 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, based mainly on his and the family’s stake in the holding company and in Cuckoo Homesys, which rents appliances such as water purifiers.
Koo is chairman of the holding company, while the oldest of his two sons — Koo Bon-hak — runs the business.
Koo Bon-hak, 48, is chief executive officer and holds the largest stake in Cuckoo. He joined the company in 1995 after earning a master’s degree in accounting from the University of Illinois.
A spokeswoman for Cuckoo, which also manufactures dishwashers, blenders and other kitchen appliances, declined to comment.
While Cuckoo dominates the market for cookers, it is battling long-term trends that could undermine growth. Rice consumption in South Korea has tumbled by 50 percent in the past three decades as wheat-based products such as pasta and bread have gained wider acceptance, and the growing number of one-person households and dual-income families has contributed to the popularity of microwavable rice, which is less time-consuming and easier to cook.
Overseas sales, which account for about 10 percent of the company’s revenue, were hit by the fallout from tensions last year between South Korea and China over the US-led deployment of an anti-missile system.
Exports of Cuckoo rice cookers to China shrank 21 percent last year compared with 2016, HI Investment & Securities in Seoul said in a June report.
Cuckoo products are sold in 25 countries, including China, Russia and Vietnam, with China making up about 40 percent of overseas sales, the company said.
Its rice cookers are customized to match each country’s environment, accounting for differences in temperature and humidity.
For many South Koreans living abroad, a rice cooker is a reminder of home and a link to their country’s culture.
When Yoon was a student in Pennsylvania, he said his mother sent him a Cuckoo for his dorm room, but he was unable to make it work because the power outlet was different than in South Korea.
“My mom cried because I couldn’t use it,” Yoon said. “That’s how much a rice cooker means for the family.”
Could Asia be on the verge of a new wave of nuclear proliferation? A look back at the early history of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which recently celebrated its 75th anniversary, illuminates some reasons for concern in the Indo-Pacific today. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin recently described NATO as “the most powerful and successful alliance in history,” but the organization’s early years were not without challenges. At its inception, the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty marked a sea change in American strategic thinking. The United States had been intent on withdrawing from Europe in the years following
My wife and I spent the week in the interior of Taiwan where Shuyuan spent her childhood. In that town there is a street that functions as an open farmer’s market. Walk along that street, as Shuyuan did yesterday, and it is next to impossible to come home empty-handed. Some mangoes that looked vaguely like others we had seen around here ended up on our table. Shuyuan told how she had bought them from a little old farmer woman from the countryside who said the mangoes were from a very old tree she had on her property. The big surprise
Ursula K. le Guin in The Ones Who Walked Away from Omelas proposed a thought experiment of a utopian city whose existence depended on one child held captive in a dungeon. When taken to extremes, Le Guin suggests, utilitarian logic violates some of our deepest moral intuitions. Even the greatest social goods — peace, harmony and prosperity — are not worth the sacrifice of an innocent person. Former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), since leaving office, has lived an odyssey that has brought him to lows like Le Guin’s dungeon. From late 2008 to 2015 he was imprisoned, much of this
The issue of China’s overcapacity has drawn greater global attention recently, with US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen urging Beijing to address its excess production in key industries during her visit to China last week. Meanwhile in Brussels, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen last week said that Europe must have a tough talk with China on its perceived overcapacity and unfair trade practices. The remarks by Yellen and Von der Leyen come as China’s economy is undergoing a painful transition. Beijing is trying to steer the world’s second-largest economy out of a COVID-19 slump, the property crisis and