"In delivering the best fine-dining experience to customers, taste is fundamental. What matters most is whether that taste is replicated exactly at every Ashley Queens location."
At 10 a.m. on the 7th, at the research and development (R&D) lab on the third basement level of the E-Land Group Global R&D Center in Gangseo District, Seoul, a member of the Ashley Queens menu development team, when asked what matters most in new menu R&D, said, "Even for complex, labor-intensive dishes, we have to simplify the cooking method as much as possible so anyone at the store can make them easily," adding this in response.
The E-Land Group Global R&D Center is where chefs' creations are researched and developed so they can be reproduced exactly across Ashley Queens' 115 locations nationwide. In addition to menu development, tastings and cooking training are conducted. This area is restricted to authorized personnel, excluding development staff.
The R&D lab is equipped with the same ovens, worktops, and utensils as Ashley Queens stores. On the workbench that day sat a bowl of perilla oil buckwheat noodles under development. After about 30 minutes, development team members tasted the noodles again to check whether they had gone soggy and whether the flavor had changed from immediately after cooking.
A member of the Ashley Queens menu development team said, "Because employees who cook in the stores have varying levels of skill, we simplify recipes and steps so anyone can achieve a consistent taste," adding, "By nature, buffets prepare large quantities at once and must maintain quality for a certain time. We test whether taste and form hold up over time and are working to pinpoint the optimal moment to serve new dishes."
Ashley Queens is a core brand that accounts for about 70% of total sales at E-Land Eats, the food and beverage (F&B) affiliate of E-Land Group. According to the Financial Supervisory Service's electronic disclosure system, E-Land Eats posted sales of 568.5 billion won and operating profit of 45 billion won last year. Those figures rose 20.8% and 41% from a year earlier, respectively.
Menu development here is closer to designing a system that maintains the same taste at every store. The key is simplicity and standardization. From the development stage, menus are designed to minimize in-store cooking processes. Then, at a CK (preprocessing) plant, ingredients are trimmed and partially cooked into semi-finished form. In stores, only the final steps—such as oven-baking or grilling—are carried out.
In practice, the Ashley Queens manual lists measurement standards for sauces and ingredients in ounces (oz) or grams (g). For some items such as vegetables and meats, thickness and length are specified to be uniform. Cooking cautions, quality maintenance methods, cooking times, and holding times are broken down in detail.
A representative menu item is lasagna, to be unveiled in May. As the item shifts from a la carte to salad bar use, the cooking method has changed. Previously, staff had to spread the sauce and stack the sheets in-store, but now the steps are simplified by using pre-cooked pasta and a signature ragù sauce. In stores, a lasagna block that has undergone preprocessing (frozen after production to preserve quality) is thawed, topped with cheese, baked in the oven for about 14 minutes, then cut into bite-sized pieces for display.
A member of the Ashley Queens menu development team said, "To present lasagna with identical taste and quality at every store, the ragù sauce alone was revised 15 times, and finding a lasagna sheet suited to buffet conditions took one to two months," adding, "Process work for preprocessing also took close to a month. During logistics and delivery, there were cases where the form collapsed or quality changed, and it took quite a while to solve those issues."
Behind the emphasis on standardization is a high turnover rate. According to E-Land Eats, Ashley Queens draws about 80,000 to 90,000 visitors per day on weekends. On average, roughly 800 people visit Ashley Queens per day. In a setting where large-batch cooking must be repeated in a short time, simplifying and standardizing processes is essential to present the chef's dishes, flavors, and quality identically across all locations.
Menu development does not end after passing tastings. Staff and part-time workers cook the dishes at test stores, and customer reactions are checked. If cooking proves difficult or quality variations arise, the company's quality and standardization team steps in to adjust processes and refine the manual. Store-level cooking methods are then conveyed through employee training.
An E-Land Eats representative said, "Ashley Queens is a brand that proposes new fine-dining experiences, not merely serves food," adding, "We continue to focus on research, development, and standardization so customers can enjoy the same taste and quality anywhere nationwide."