Brands
Kimchi meets kadhi as Mother’s Recipe cooks up Korean comfort at home
Digital-first video series shows how Korean flavours slip easily into Indian kitchens.
MUMBAI: When Korean cravings knock, Mother’s Recipe is answering with a desi ladle. The legacy food brand has rolled out a digital-first recipe video series that brings Korean-inspired dishes into everyday Indian kitchens, promising global flavour without the fuss of unfamiliar tools, ingredients or marathon prep sessions.
The new series leans into a simple insight: curiosity around Korean food is high, but confidence in cooking it at home often isn’t. As Korean flavours continue to dominate menus, screens and social feeds, many home cooks are looking for a starting point that feels familiar. Mother’s Recipe steps into that gap, showing how a few trusted sauces can recreate much-loved flavours while keeping the process quick, approachable and rewarding.
Anchored in the idea “MOM-FU: Maa ka pyaar in a Korean avatar”, the campaign features five recipes designed to demystify Korean-style cooking. The line-up includes Korean Spicy Paneer, Korean Spicy Noodles, Korean Bibimbap, Korean Fried Rice and Korean Veg Dakgalbi, each adapted for Indian kitchens and busy routines.
The videos spotlight how familiar pantry staples do the heavy lifting. Korean Spicy Paneer is prepared using soya bean sauce, garlic chilli sauce and red chilli sauce. Korean Spicy Noodles combine desi Szechwan sauce, green chilli sauce, soya bean sauce and chilli vinegar, while Korean Bibimbap relies on chilli vinegar and soya bean sauce for its signature balance. Korean Fried Rice and Korean Veg Dakgalbi follow the same philosophy, recreating Korean-style comfort with ingredients that are easy to find and simple to use.
Each recipe is broken down into clear, confidence-boosting steps, aimed at first-timers as much as seasoned home cooks. The focus stays firmly on ease, showing that experimenting with global flavours does not have to mean complicated cooking or long hours in the kitchen.
Speaking about the thinking behind the series, Mother’s Recipe executive director Sanjana Desai said home cooking is evolving along with taste. She noted that while care has always been at the heart of cooking, younger consumers are increasingly eager to explore global cuisines at home. Korean food, she added, is a natural fit for this curiosity, and the series aims to make those flavours simpler to try using familiar sauces, without taking away from the joy of cooking.
The campaign will be amplified across digital platforms through short-form videos and social-first storytelling, supported by high-quality visuals and recipe-led content designed for food, lifestyle and culture-focused media. Rather than shouting about novelty, the narrative stays grounded in everyday cooking moments and the small thrill of trying something new at home.
With this digital-first push, Mother’s Recipe continues to balance tradition with changing tastes, inviting consumers to bring Korean-inspired flavours to the table in a way that feels less like a culinary leap and more like a natural next step in the home kitchen.
Brands
Estée Lauder to shed 10,000 jobs as new boss bets on digital shift
The cosmetics giant raises its profit outlook but stays silent on a possible merger with Spain’s Puig, as job cuts deepen and a three-year sales slump weighs on the turnaround
NEW YORK: Stéphane de La Faverie is not done cutting. Estée Lauder announced on Friday that it plans to eliminate as many as 3,000 additional jobs, taking its total redundancy programme to as many as 10,000 roles, up from a previous target of 7,000 announced a year ago. The company, which owns La Mer, The Ordinary, Tom Ford, and Aveda, employs roughly 57,000 people worldwide. The mathematics of what is now being contemplated is stark.
The fresh round of cuts is expected to generate a further $200 million in savings, bringing the total annual savings from the programme to as much as $1.2 billion before taxes. That money, De La Faverie has made clear, will be ploughed back into the turnaround.
A CEO in a hurry
De La Faverie, who took the helm in January 2025, inherited a company that had endured three consecutive years of annual sales declines. His response has been to move fast and cut deep. A significant portion of the latest redundancies reflects his push to reduce headcount at US department stores, long a cornerstone of Estée Lauder’s distribution model but now a channel in structural decline. In their place, he is accelerating the shift toward faster-growing online platforms, including Amazon.com and TikTok Shop, a pivot that is reshaping not just where Estée Lauder sells but how it thinks about its customers.
The numbers are moving in the right direction
Despite the pain, there are signs the medicine is working. Estée Lauder raised its profit outlook for the remainder of the fiscal year, guiding for adjusted earnings per share in the range of $2.35 to $2.45, above analyst estimates and a notable step up from the $2.05 to $2.25 range it had guided for in February. Organic net sales growth is expected to come in at 3 per cent, the company said, at the high end of the range it set out in February.
The share price tells a mixed story. After De La Faverie took charge, the stock surged nearly 60 per cent, buoyed by investor optimism that a longtime company insider could finally arrest the decline. But 2026 has been rougher: the shares have fallen 27 per cent this year, weighed down by disappointing February results and the overhang of unresolved merger talks with Spanish beauty giant Puig Brands SA. The company gave no additional details about those discussions on Friday, leaving the market to guess.
Silence on Puig
The proposed tie-up with Puig remains the most consequential unknown hanging over Estée Lauder. A deal with the Barcelona-based group, which owns brands including Carolina Herrera and Rabanne, would reshape the global luxury beauty landscape. But with nothing new to say and a turnaround still very much in progress, De La Faverie is asking investors to trust the process.
Three years of sales declines, 10,000 job cuts, and a merger that may or may not happen. At Estée Lauder, the overhaul has barely started.
