Home interior corporations HANSSEM is accelerating its push into the kitchen furniture market by putting Anh Sung-jae, the breakout star of Netflix's "Culinary Class Wars," front and center.
On the 30th, HANSSEM said it named Chef Anh Sung-jae as its official ambassador and on the 23rd launched a new brand campaign, "The kitchen is skill." The campaign reflects the strict judging standards of cooking competitions in the quality standards of kitchen furniture. The released videos are divided into two: materials and completeness. In the videos, Chef Anh evaluates HANSSEM's materials and completeness and conveys HANSSEM's design philosophy built over 55 years.
Behind HANSSEM's emphasis on materials and completeness is a philosophy accumulated through long study of the Korean-style kitchen. Kimchi, an essential side dish for Koreans, has strong color and high acidity, making it difficult to remove once absorbed into a countertop. In response, HANSSEM conducts a 24-hour anti-stain test using kimchi brine, among others. It goes beyond checking quality to determine whether it suits Korea's kitchen environment. It even takes into account Korea's food culture, where hot, salty, and strongly colored dishes are commonplace.
HANSSEM's premium kitchen line, "Kitchenbach," can custom-build tall units and wall cabinets up to 2.7 meters to match the recently higher ceiling heights of luxury dwellings. Precision custom design in 1-millimeter increments improves completeness. A variety of module options—such as pantry-type storage, pocket sliding doors, and walk-in storage spaces—allow styles ranging from classic to modern. It offers 12 signature colors and 84 custom colors, for more than 100 color choices in total. In addition, high-quality hardware such as ceramic countertops from Infinity in Italy and hinges from Blum have been applied to elevate the finish quality.
Doors undergo up to 40,000 open-and-close cycles—equivalent to 10 times a day for 10 years—to prevent deformation. A wall-cabinet installation strength test that endures a load of 227 kg for 4 minutes is also part of the process to ensure stable products that won't easily fall even as storage volume increases.
Across the entire Kitchenbach line, eco-friendly materials rated Super E0 (SE0) with formaldehyde emissions of 0.3 mg/L or less are used. Doors undergo seven or more coating stages to enhance uniformity and a premium surface finish.
At the Kitchenbach showroom in "HANSSEM Flagship Nonhyeon," specialists—Kitchenbach design experts with more than 10 years of experience—offer one-on-one consultations to propose designs optimized for users' space layouts and living patterns. Using the in-house-developed 3D design tool "Home Planner," precise measurements and simulations minimize errors. Master installers with professional installation experience also attend to every detail.
Enabling these processes is HANSSEM's largest-in-Korea production system. Unlike typical imported kitchen brands, which take five to six months from production to installation, Kitchenbach can complete production and installation within 14 business days.
A HANSSEM official said, "The campaign videos with Chef Anh Sung-jae capture the point where the official ambassador's belief that small differences shape outcomes meets HANSSEM Kitchen's design philosophy," adding, "We sought to concisely express the 55-year history we've built in kitchen system development."