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Food Academy
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Jaru
Jaru is a Dublin-based Korean food company, which started as a stall at food/farmers markets in 2016. The business founder Gunmoo is from South Korea where his family has been running a food business. He has been working in restaurants for years in New York, Seoul and Dublin before starting Jaru.
Gunmoo came to Ireland in 2010 for a year plan to study and work but soon fell in love with the city. He started to work in the Korean restaurant as a kitchen porter, then waiter and after two years he became a manager. Through these experiences, he found the growing popularity of Korean foods.
To understand and learn more about the food industry in Ireland/Europe, he enrolled in DIT Cathal Brugha Street (TU Dublin) undertaken BSc in Culinary entrepreneurship for four years. While studying, he kept working in various food operations from a fine-dining restaurant to prepacked food production in Dublin. In 2015, he travelled to New York and worked in the kitchen of Michelin-starred Korean restaurant, which was an excellent opportunity to learn the westernised Korean food. He has also travelled around the states and visited many Korean food operations from a food truck in LA to kimchi factory in Dallas.
Gunmoo came back to Dublin in September 2015 and started to develop a business plan for Jaru. At the same time, he also published a thesis on an evaluation of Korean food business in Ireland, and conducted a food product development project on Irish made Kimchi, which is now available in every SuperValu stores.
In July 2016, Jaru finally took its very first step at street food markets after the long journey – offering Korean BBQ rice bowls, Kimchi, pickles, and sauces. Only a year after, Jaru became one of the most popular stalls in all markets feeding over 1,000 customers each week. This market stall is now developed to a restaurant in Dublin 8, where you can find more wide range of Korean foods along with the best Kimchi in Ireland!
Participating in the Food Academy has become a robust cornerstone to bring the business from an idea concept to real sales. The Food Academy has allowed the company to develop the products in various angles from marketing, sales to legislation and food safety. It was also a great opportunity to meet many of amazing producers, mentors and advisers.
The core concept of the company is to make authentic 'real' Korean food, but using locally produced ingredients, and we have always been trying to keep that idea. We travel to a farm regularly to see where our food started and communicate with farmers. We also go to a local vegetable market every morning to have the finest, locally produced ingredients. We wish to grow up with locals. The company also wish to influence many other Asian food producers in Ireland to engage with local farmers and producers in the future.
