The way people prepare for year-end gatherings is changing. As the burden of dining-out prices grows, more consumers prefer home parties, gatherings held at home instead of restaurants. The food industry is targeting year-end demand with premium ready-to-cook meals that go beyond convenience to elevate taste, presentation, and overall quality.
On the 24th, according to the retail and food industries, demand for home-party ready meals is rising, and interest is growing in menus that can create a festive mood at home. Products that can be cooked with just a microwave or air fryer and are configured and presented for sharing among several people are being chosen. The role of ready meals is expanding from simple meal solutions to dishes that complete a gathering.
Reflecting this trend, premium ready meals are diversifying beyond year-end favorites like pizza and pasta to include special dishes created in collaboration with famous chefs. A representative example is the Ashley Homestaurant frozen pizza series introduced by E-Land Group Pam & Food. According to E-Land Group Pam & Food, sales of the series from the 1st to the 23rd of this month rose 15.4% from a year earlier, and cumulative sales this year reached 7 million units.
NoodleLovers, a noodle and sauce corporations, is targeting home-party demand with a frozen pasta series topped with whole mozzarella cheese. Harim introduced restaurant-style ready meals such as pasta and hamburger steaks under its The Miseuk brand. The options are also expanding to semi-prepared meals like jjimdak, dakbokkeumtang, and ori duruchigi that only require thawing, pouring into a pot, and boiling.
Premium ready meals bearing the names of famous chefs are also popular. That is because menus once available only by going to a restaurant on special days can now be served at home as party-style dishes. Representative examples include chef Jeong Ji-seon's new "Gourmet Shrimp Har Gow," developed with CJ CheilJedang, and Market Kurly's RMR (restaurant meal replacement) products "Chef Lee Yeon-bok's Mokran Jjajangmyeon and Jjamppong." According to Market Kurly, as of this day, sales of chef Lee Yeon-bok's RMR products rose 10% from a year earlier.
Home parties have become the mainstream for year-end and New Year gatherings because consumers feel a heavier dining-out expense burden. According to the Ministry of Data and Statistics (MODS), the consumer price index (CPI) in November this year was 117.20 (2020=100), up 2.4% from a year earlier. The living necessities price index also rose 2.9%, and dining-out prices jumped 2.8%.
The industry does not expect this trend to be a short-lived year-end phenomenon. A food industry official said, "Home parties are becoming established as a mode of consumption rather than a one-off alternative, and ready meals are being recognized not as 'cheap and fast food' but as 'food that completes the mood.'"
Lee Jong-u, a professor of business administration at Ajou University, said, "With the burden of dining-out prices overlapping with an economic slowdown, the way people gather at year-end is changing. Home parties that enhance the mood while reducing expense burdens have become an alternative," adding, "It may be a high inflation era, but rather than cutting expenditure entirely, consumers are changing how they spend to maintain satisfaction."