The Joy of Cooking — Asian
Interview with Norma Chu, Founder & CEO of DayDayCook
Norma Chu combined her two passions—food and business—when she founded Hong Kong-based DayDayCook (DDC) in 2011-2012. Thirteen years later, DDC’s story has many wonderful twists and turns—think the Food Network, cooking and home products purveyor Food52 Inc., and a fast-growing, Asian version of General Mills.
Perhaps DDC isn’t quite there yet but Chu is pleased with her company’s growing consumer products portfolio. In addition to packaged foods sold in China, DDC last year acquired not one but two popular brands in the US Asian foods market: San Francisco’s Nona Lim, known for its refrigerated noodles, broths and stir-fry kits; and Yai’s Thai, a Denver processor of shelf-stable Thai curries and sauces.
In this exclusive podcast, Chu tells Prepared Foods Editor Bob Garrison about her passion for all Asian cuisines and her interest to promote daily at-home cooking and meals. Originally based in Hong Kong, DDC promoted cooking with video recipes and meal planning content for lifestyle media in Hong Kong, and later mainland China. DDC later evolved to become an online commerce company specializing in food and food items (like Food52). Then it shifted once again to start promoting and selling its own brands.
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Looking ahead, Chu says US retailers embrace the Asian food category and DDC’s goal of becoming a category leader. The company hopes to grow its US business by building synergies with existing brands (for example, extending Nona Lim into shelf-stable, clean label instant noodles), expanding overall distribution and looking for additional acquisitions.
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