Park Yun-jung of Little Bite More, creator Anunu in panel talk
Healthy bread stands out through bold visual design
Traditional yeot candy reimagined with freeze-drying for a melt-in-your-mouth texture
"Just because a dessert uses healthy ingredients doesn't mean it has to look healthy. You can make it as dazzling as you want. The competitive edge comes from surprise and unexpected charm that gets people talking." — Park Yun-jung, CEO of Little Bite More
"Traditional yeot candy sticks to your teeth and is hard, but with freeze-drying it becomes crispy and melts in your mouth like cotton candy. That differentiated texture is the core of the Pasak brand." — An Eun-woo, CEO of Pasak
A one-on-one panel talk on "growth strategies for K-desserts" took place Thursday at the Jandi Sarangbang of Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) in Jung-gu, Seoul, as part of Consumer Forum 2027: K-Sweet Festa. Park Yun-jung, CEO of Little Bite More, and An Eun-woo, CEO of Pasak, took part in the discussion.
Park began developing her menu out of a desire to create healthier desserts, and her products combine wholesome ingredients with sensory-driven design. An is the founder of the Pasak brand and a snack content creator who communicates with followers under the name "Anunu" on TikTok and YouTube.
Both founders have built their businesses by breaking conventional dessert formulas — Park through visual impact, An through texture.
Park said she started baking healthy bread at home for her son, who has atopic dermatitis and irritable bowel syndrome. "I developed the recipe many times, but my son would say, 'Mom's bread is probably healthy, but it doesn't look tasty,' and he wouldn't eat it," she said. She added that she wanted to shatter the stereotype around healthy baked goods. "I wanted to show that healthy bread can be just as delicious and visually stunning, so I developed all kinds of designs," she said.
Park also introduced a cake that changes the way people eat it. Her "bundle cake" groups multiple cupcakes together to resemble a single large cake. "A video of people pulling apart a lavish cake all at once drew a lot of attention on SNS," she said. "In marketing, you need that kind of buzz-worthy moment that catches people's eyes online."
Pasak's distinctive texture was also the product of long deliberation. An said the inspiration came from wanting to create a K-dessert that could be sold at Incheon Airport — something like Tokyo Banana, the popular Japanese souvenir cake filled with banana cream. "To reinterpret yeot as a modern dessert, I needed a new manufacturing method," An said. The answer was freeze-drying. "When you freeze-dry yeot, it puffs up as it dries. After that process, it crumbles with a crisp snap and melts smoothly in your mouth," An explained.
Both founders agreed that surviving in a fast-moving dessert market requires consistently developing creative new offerings. Park noted that the most expensive ingredient Little Bite More uses is cheonggukjang powder, a fermented soybean product more commonly found in savory cooking. "We use it in our bakery dough as well," she said.
An said South Korea's dessert technology has advanced to the point of earning global recognition, and the overall quality of domestic desserts has risen across the board. "Now what matters is how you present a dessert, what kind of texture you create, and how you use new ingredients," An said. Looking ahead, An predicted that desserts emphasizing visual and auditory distinctiveness will become increasingly popular.
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