“Do what you love, or do what you do well?” seems to be a question everyone faces at some point in their careers.
CEO of Bon World F&B, chose the latter.
Choi was actually a poet, debuting in 1994 and publishing six poetry books. In graduate school, she majored in social welfare. However, she also found success in another, somewhat unlikely, industry — making and selling porridge. Today, as the co-founder of a successful restaurant chain, she focuses on taking Korean porridge overseas.
It took a colossal business failure by her husband before he and Choi started the porridge business in 2002. In just over 14 years or so, the shop known as Bonjuk has morphed into a sizeable firm, Bonif, led by her husband Kim Cheol-ho, with some 1,460 franchises. Bonif offers other items such as “bibimbap” or rice with mixed vegetables and Korean lunch boxes, but porridge business is dominant. The restaurant chain sells 100,000 bowls of porridge a day, and its annual sales reach 129.5 billion won.
It’s hard to imagine that its first store in Daehangno, Seoul, sold only nine to 10 bowls a day when it began. The Bon World manages the overseas stores.
Choi’s husband ran a bath amenities business, but the business suddenly collapsed in 1997 when much of Asia was impacted by a financial crisis. With three daughters and a mother-in-law to support, she was devastated by the failure of the business, so much so that she suffered from depression and social phobia.
Out of necessity, however, she picked herself. Inspired by her husband, who sold hotcakes from a cart in front of Sookmyung Women’s University, she decided to pull herself up.
Her first order of business — to make Korean porridge as popular and marketable as a standard meal, in a change from its reputation as a patient’s meal or an appetizer.
“It is in the soup, which is made with natural ingredients,” Choi said, giving only a glimpse into the recipe. “Our base soup uses more than the regular vegetables, mushroom and kelp.
Choi also developed an efficient process in which it takes only 10 to 15 minutes for a bowl of porridge to arrive at the customer’s table.
“The porridge is riding on the hallyu or Korean wave, and is considered a delicious hansik (Korean food),” she said, explaining why the chain aims to expand overseas. She does not shy away from the challenge posed by congee, a savory Chinese dish eaten mostly for breakfast. “Congee is much lighter, while our porridge bowl can be a one whole meal,” she said. She focused on providing a large portion so that one bowl of their porridge would serve as a meal and giving it an appealing taste.
Bon World now has 13 stores in China, five in the United States and two in Japan. But its expansion did not come easy.
“You can say that the history of our overseas expansion is fraught with failures,”
Choi said, laughing, recalling how the chain failed in foreign markets including the United States and Vietnam, before finally making it in Shanghai. The chain first opened in Korea as a porridge shop, then after achieving some success, re-branded itself as Bonjuk and Bibimbap Cafe overseas, which involved expanding its menu to include other highly popular Korean dishes, namely bibimbap and tteokbokgi or spicy rice cake.The Bon shop in Kunshan, Jiangsu Province, China
But the chain never forgets that the success began with the porridge.
“My husband’s friend was in food business consulting, and my husband suggested that I do a porridge place,” Choi said. Initially, she thought, “Porridge?”
The upside of starting the porridge business was that it did not require a lot of cash. Choi and her husband started out with only about 28 million won.
Choi is not a chef, but, she worked until she developed a successful standard porridge recipe. “I grew up in a traditional family in Cheongyang in South Chungcheong Province, which meant that I ate a lot of traditional Korean food, including porridge,” Choi said. “Also, my mother prepared food in large portions.”
Choi channeled her culinary experiences as a child into her new porridge store venture, developing seven hearty porridges, such as abalone porridge, and five traditional ones, including red-bean and black sesame porridges. These 12 original porridges are still on the menu today and account for 70-80 percent of its sales.
“I drew from my mother’s habit of piling our plates and bowls with a lot of rice and porridge,” Choi, said, explaining the generous servings of porridges at her restaurants.
While she admitted that the porridge has yet to reach the global appeal of other Korean dishes such as “bibimbap,” she believes the healthy, tasty dish will eventually become popular all over the world.
"Jjajangmyeon or black bean sauce noodles is now a regular part of Korean diet,” Choi said. “Porridge can become like that.”
Even with their first store in Daehangno, she and her husband made sure that the menu is also available in English and Japanese to encourage foreign customers to order.
Overseas expansion poses several challenges, but Choi is not one to give up.
“To me, the challenges simply mean I need to understand them. In this context, I want to restructure the word ‘understand’ into literally mean to ‘stand under’ customers, partners,” Choi said.
Even as the first porridge store began to do well, there were times when she wanted to quit.
“I was working seven days and until late at night. My hands were often burned, and I was on my feet all day. It wasn’t easy,” Choi said.
But she discovered a new mission in life when she met a woman who wanted to open a Bon porridge shop to support her husband, who had cancer, and her children. “She had been unsuccessfully running a noodle shop and wanted to open a porridge shop,” Choi said. Fortunately, things turned around for the woman, and for years, she texted Choi daily to thank for helping her and her family.
“I realized that I was good at training and teaching people (about opening up a franchise restaurant),” she said.
Choi stressed that sense of purpose is what brought her this far, and she recommended that people find a field of work that gives them the same. “You must also believe in what you’re doing,” she said.
Choi, who is a devout Christian, carries out a wide range of charitable work. In fact, Bon World separated from Bonif in 2014 in part so Choi could continue those activities. Bonif, which has grown rapidly in just nine years, is expected to go public in 2017. In the lead up to the IPO, Bonif has courted outside investors who invested on the condition that Choi, who has shares in Bonif, does not spend it on religious works.
“Our overseas expansion has several goals, one of which is to encourage people around the world to eat healthy Korean food regularly,” Choi said. “But we are also helping hungry children overseas,” she said, where schools and two bread factories operate in Bangladesh, and dry, powered porridge are distributed to children suffering from food shortage.
“Yes, I want to adhere to the value stated there,” she said, referring to the writing on the wall. Bon World’s goals are to help people through healthy Korean food and to uphold the values of cooperation, mission, us, promise, value and going further.
Another reason Choi wanted to give back to society was the generosity of other people when she and her husband were just starting out.
Her advice on career and life: “If you are hesitating to do something new, I’m an example that anybody can do it.”
