DOUGHNUT DYNASTY

In less than a decade, Lee Jun-beom has built GFFG from a single burger joint into a titan of South Korean F&B, with 42 outlets across 11 different restaurant chains. Now, armed with a major cash injection, he’s got his sights set on the rest of the world

By Richard Lord

Lee Jun-beom has accidentally birthed an F&B empire. After an abortive career in fashion, the South Korean entrepreneur has gone from setting up and cooking in his own restaurant in 2014 to owning and running 42 of them less than a decade later. They fall under the umbrella of his food and lifestyle brand GFFG, which stands for Good Food For Good—“for good” in the sense of “permanently”: quite the corporate statement of intent. GFFG has become known for a wide range of mostly American-style F&B concepts, combining stylish surroundings, approachable prices and a range of extremely Insta-friendly menu items—first and foremost, bakery chain Cafe Knotted’s range of visually sumptuous doughnuts, served in brightly coloured cups emblazoned with a lip-licking smiley, that it’s more or less impossible not to be…

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Tatler Hong Kong (Digital) - 1 Issue, September 2023

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