The Canadian Beef Centre of Excellence hosted an incoming delegation from Korea recently in collaboration with the Alberta government and Destination Canada.
The delegation consisted of Pullman Hotel Group executive chef Shin Jong-cheol, his culinary team and well-known Korean actor, artist and influencer Kim Kang-woo. The visiting culinary team learned more about the attributes and various applications for Canadian beef cuts including short ribs, back ribs, finger meat, flat iron, chuck flap tail and boneless short plate.
The centre delivered an exciting Canadian beef culinary program that saw chefs Mathieu Paré and Cameron Pappel cook side-by-side with the visiting chefs and celebrity guest. Each chef expertly produced dishes featuring Korean and Canadian ingredients and techniques for featured Canadian beef products.
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The featured Canadian beef cuts will star in a special promotion at the Ambassador Seoul Hotel during September and October which organizers expect will draw more than 10,000 guests each month. The delegation’s engagement with the centre also built excitement for the promotion, with content collected for Kim Kang-woo’s YouTube channel to be released ahead of the upcoming in-market “Canadian Ingredients” promotion at the Ambassador Seoul Hotel.
The culinary engagement is the latest of several activities completed by the centre this fiscal year. Since April 1, 2025, the Canadian Beef Centre of Excellence has presented at seven professional association conferences and industry stakeholder and consumer events, and delivered nine in-person export market buyer missions. Two more missions are scheduled for later in September. These engagements promote familiarization with the Canadian beef advantage, knowledge of resources and training tools, purchase of Canadian beef including opportunity cuts, and innovative product use. This all builds awareness and linkages back to potential future in-market promotions in key export markets such as South Korea.
Interest in Canadian beef was very high during recent activities at Canada Beef’s first booth at Food and Hospitality Indonesia 2025, at market development initiatives in Vietnam and during Agriculture and Agri-Food Minister Heath MacDonald’s trade mission to Indonesia, Singapore and the Philippines.
In Canada, beef demand remains strong. However, Canada Beef’s consumer and producer social media channels are increasingly inundated with comments from followers about the price of beef at retail.
With the current tight supply and robust demand scenario expected to keep beef prices aloft through to 2027, Canada Beef is reminding shoppers to check out the Canadian Beef Information Gateway at cdnbeef.ca. In addition to providing information and recipes to help consumers get the most out of 70-plus beef cuts, the gateway provides information on underused cuts — an increasingly important feature as beef-loving consumers seek more economical cuts.
Underused cuts often require specific preparation methods to deliver a memorable meal, and the gateway provides all the necessary details to do so. Flank steak is a great example of an underused beef cut that’s becoming popular. The cut can be found on the gateway and there are many delicious recipes that use it. Flank steak can be prepared, and its leftovers repurposed, in a variety of dishes to stretch food dollars over several meals.
Top sirloin cap is a favorite of Paré. He used this cut to win a culinary competition at the Calgary Stampede Kitchen Theatre in July and the recipe he used, Grilled Steak Dippables, is of course on the gateway.
The inside round is another versatile cut of beef. It can be used in stews, as a pot roast, or slow-roasted in dry heat and carved thin, or cut into steaks or stir fry.
Canada Beef has worked extensively with culinary, butchery, food-service and retail sectors to build awareness of these and other Canadian beef opportunity cuts, and the possibilities they provide for grocers and restaurants looking to offer tempting and economical beef options to their customers.
Canadian beef is delicious, and Canada Beef understands that consumers want assurances that it is also part of a healthy diet.
To support this, Canada Beef established an expert advisory committee, comprising recognized, independent health and nutrition experts who provide guidance on diet and wellness communication initiatives.
The committee has contributed to several projects, including the gateway’s diet and wellness program and shaping the nutrition criteria for those diets.
Canada Beef’s health and nutrition team regularly consults with the expert advisory committee on the wording and direction of educational resources aimed at consumers, as well as technical resources for health professionals and industry partners. The committee has reviewed various documents on topics ranging from nutrition during pregnancy to nutritional brochures for consumers such as “The Best of Beef.”
The committee has also been convened to help develop special interest white papers, such as the one Canada Beef developed on the National School Food Policy and its healthy aging strategy.
Committee members are also consulted on a case-by-case basis, based on their nutrition specialty. For example, a regulatory expert reviews any advertising work that contains nutrition messaging and an expert pediatric dietitian reviews any nutrition messaging related to children.
These are just a few examples of the work underway at Canada Beef to win the hearts and minds of consumers and maintain mindshare for beef as supply-demand pressures continue.
