President of BBQ World Food, Culture, Science and Technology Institute
On a business trip to Spain, the idea of frying olive oil
Complete golden olive chicken by biting raw chicken
“The best taste when fried at 165 degrees for 10 minutes
Internal resistance to the seven times higher oil price”
사진 확대 President of BBQ World Culture, Science and Technology Institute, Ju Sang-jip. Genesis BBQ Group
“Overcoming the golden olive chicken is the biggest challenge. It always fails, but the goal is clear. It’s about making the only chicken that the world’s 8 billion people will enjoy together.”
The 59-year-old president of the BBQ World Culture, Science and Technology Institute, who developed the BBQ’s representative menu “Golden Olive Chicken,” expressed this aspiration. Since its launch in 2005, more than 500 million golden olives have been sold. In other words, the whole nation has eaten 10 for 20 years. The ‘BBQ=Golden Olive’ formula is still in effect.
President Joo, who met at BBQ Chicken University in Icheon, Gyeonggi-do on the 13th, said, “We continue to release new products, but no products beyond golden olive chicken have been released yet. We are studying chicken every day with the aim of making chicken that can be used anywhere in the world.”
Called Dr. Chicken in the industry, he joined Miwon (currently Daesang) in 1984, entered the food industry, and joined BBQ in 2000 and has been on a path for more than 40 years.
Golden Olive Chicken started out of coincidence. It was a fried dish I ate at a restaurant during a business trip to Spain in 2003. When the chef explained, “It is fried with extra-verged olive oil only to precious customers,” Yoon Hong-geun, chairman of Genesis BBQ Group, instructed on the spot, “Apply it to chicken.”
However, when the existing chicken was fried in olive oil as it was, the taste was rather poor. President Joo said, “We shouldn’t just change the oil,” and added, “We have redesigned the powder, marinade, and cooking process altogether.”
Golden Olive Chicken is a ‘product of fairness’. After thousands of tests, it was concluded that 165 degrees to about 10 minutes of frying and a core temperature of 65 degrees were the optimal conditions. In this process, he persistently dug in from the raw material stage, such as biting and eating raw chicken himself, and analyzing the meat quality and tissue. Chicken size was also quantified, and No. 10 chickens (950-1050 g) raised for about 30 days were set as the optimal section.
Marination and aging process are added to this. Natural raw material-based marinade was applied and aged for a certain period of time to enhance the flavor. “Taste is data, not taste,” he said. “We found the optimal value by repeating functional evaluation and consumer testing.”
사진 확대 The president (right) of the BBQ World Culture, Science and Technology Institute is taking a commemorative photo after receiving a commendation from BBQ Chairman Yoon Hong-geun. Genesis BBQ Group
The biggest challenge was the ‘fruit’ in olive oil. This is because the flesh component lowered the smoke point, making it not suitable for frying. After years of testing, olive oil was developed that removed the pulp.
There was also a great deal of internal resistance. As the cost is six to seven times higher than the existing cooking oil, some even said, “The company is going to collapse.” Nevertheless, the product was released in May 2005 and has quickly settled into the market since then.
Even now, extra-vergene olive oil from Spain is used. However, due to global warming, olive oil prices have soared, and sunflower oil and sunflower oil are being blended 5 to 5 from 2023. Olive oil and sunflower oil have similar compositions, so they can be blended, he said. “The scent is partially weakened, but it has been supplemented with powder to maintain a similar taste as before.”
His insistence on olive oil was based on ‘health’. “In 2005, the controversy over trans fat at the time increased my reluctance to fried oil,” he said. “I wanted to make chicken with healthier oil.”
At the time of his development, he was engaged in his work. “When I went to work on Monday, I hung several shirts in my car and only went home on Saturday,” he recalled. “I stayed at Chicken University and stuck to development.” For this achievement, he was named the Genesis BBQ Group Hall of Fame No. 1 in 2009.
BBQ is speeding up its global expansion with the goal of securing 50,000 stores worldwide. Considering that McDonald’s operates about 40,000 stores, it is a strategy aimed at No. 1 in the world.
Dining and Cooking