Pink Kimchi CEO sets out to bring unique flair to spicy Korean side dish

Pink Kimchi CEO Kim Kyoung-min / Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk

By Lee Gyu-lee

Pink Kimchi's flagship product is pink turnip dongchimi (radish water kimchi). Courtesy of Pink Kimchi

Kimchi, a side dish made with fermented vegetables, is a staple food consumed by Koreans in almost every meal. It is impossible to talk about Korean cuisine without kimchi.

With its long history, many variations of kimchi have been developed using different ingredients like napa cabbages or radishes, usually made with chili flakes, like baechu (cabbage) kimchi, or without chili flakes, like dongchimi (radish water kimchi).

But the kimchi brand Pink Kimchi strives to add a new flair to the Korean comfort food through its flagship product, pink dongchimi, made with locally grown turnips from Ganghwa Island off the coast of Incheon west of Seoul.

"I want to establish something that reminds people of Pink Kimchi when they think of Ganghwa turnips. And within the brand, there is more than just kimchi, but variations so every generation can enjoy different tastes through five different flavors I've set to pursue," the brand's CEO, Kim Kyoung-min, said during a recent interview with The Korea Times at the newspaper's office in central Seoul.

"I believe Pink Kimchi's role is to offer (consumers) a variety of options to eat turnips to one's own liking."

A picture of Pink Kimchi's main product, dongchimi / Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk

The brand, which started as a favor from Kim's mother to sell her crops and homemade kimchi, has expanded into a business with a list of products made with turnips grown by her parents, like som tam (Thai-style salad) and rapees (French-style grated salad), enjoyed by celebrities like Uhm Jung-hwa. The variation helps make a relatively uncommon kimchi ingredient ― turnips ― more accessible to consumers.

"A lot of my customers say that they can't eat kimchi made with turnips, because it has a bitter kick. And I've realized that this ingredient is either strongly liked or disliked by people," Kim said.

"So I wanted to show people that turnips can also have different flavors, and developed products like pickle and rapees. No one thought of making rapees out of turnips and I, myself, didn't expect it to have such a taste."

The 37-year-old CEO used to work as an editor at a lifestyle magazine before launching the brand, with no prior experience in making kimchi.

A sandwich made with Pink Kimchi's rapees / Courtesy of Pink Kimchi

As she met people from different backgrounds while working as a freelance editor, she started to develop a passion to start her own business.

Pink Kimchi uses locally grown turnips from Ganghwa Island. Courtesy of Pink Kimchi

"I'm the type of person who gets insight from meeting people … so I tried to come across a lot of people from various backgrounds, like artists I've never met in person or people who started or are starting their own brands. I went to interview people I found to be fascinating and refreshing," she said.

"Back then, I was selling my parents' produce from their farm. And as I met these people, I began to think I could do something on my own … I thought about what I can do and looked for things that I can keep developing. And this was the closest, most easily approachable thing that was already available."

Kim started out with one product. It was a simple red turnip kimchi made by her mother. The company was originally named after her. The CEO said she wanted to introduce Ganghwa's local vegetable to outsiders who were not so familiar with turnips.

"At first, I wanted to make people see turnips as something special. This vegetable is not considered special on Ganghwa Island, but outside the region, not a lot of people were familiar with it, which frustrated me," she said.

Various kimchi products made by Pink Kimchi / Courtesy of Pink Kimchi

"On Ganghwa, this is nothing more than cabbage or water. So I felt like a fish in a small pond. So that was when I decided to open an online sales platform, which was around the time the COVID-19 pandemic hit."

Entering an already-established, competitive market was not easy.

"What I realized was that selling kimchi in Korea is really hard because there are already big brands leading the market. And my product was turnips, which are either loved or hated … so I felt I shouldn't just stick with one (product) and should develop and come up with new ones," she said.

That's when she convinced her mother to make its main product, turnip dongchimi, and came up with her own recipes to transform turnips into dishes like rapees and pesto.

Since renaming the brand to Pink Kimchi with updated products in 2021, customers began to pay attention to the unique, foreign-style dish made with local turnips, along with its kimchi products.

Pink Kimchi started out selling red spicy turnip kimchi at first. Courtesy of Pink Kimchi

The CEO said she plans to refocus on developing kimchi products within the brand, using its identity.

"Pink kimchi is turnip dongchimi. It's nothing special. But I realized something that I didn't think was special could be viewed as being special by other people. So I learned to see things from different aspects," she said. "As this brand is about kimchi, I felt it needed more that suits its name. So I thought I should put in more time into studying how to make kimchi."

After winning an award at a national kimchi-making competition last year with the brand's turnip dongchimi, Kim felt more motivated to devote herself to the staple dish.

"The foundation (of the brand) is kimchi and started from kimchi. So I think it's only right to gain more footing in this field," the CEO said, adding that she found passion in kimchi-making as she prepared for the competition. "I came to think that I can actually be a kimchi maker with a new set of perspectives."