[Music]
ramen is one of those things that
elicits that kind of like
nostalgia and longing that people want
the balance
of that noodles and soup matching
together
that's something that people crave it's
like
like a drug
ramen definitely arrived in the states
first as a
convenience food a snack food a cheap
food
it's sort of unfortunate because i think
people had a real idea that it was
something that you eat when you can't
afford to eat anything
else i've had a lot of insulin ramen
that was the easiest meal to make around
the house
the go-to food where you don't have like
many other things
i would say ramen really hit the
mainstream when
a chef then a young chef called david
chang decided to open a noodle shop
and he was korean-american he had lived
in japan for a long time
he said that he had to start making
ramen because he could not get good
ramen
in new york it's a food group of its own
and they literally cook the shoot out of
it
[Music]
he knew from having lived in japan that
ramen was just a common food it wasn't
something that people thought about that
much they took it for granted
so he had this idea
that has become very prevalent in
american food
at least what you would call like
hipster cuisine which is to take
something
that's considered kind of a low and
bring it up
high so when you talk about
elevating a food things get very
complicated
we don't want to seem like we're being
snobbish about things like cheeseburgers
or ramen
a way that you don't want to elevate
food is just by
putting some foie gras on top of it or
sprinkling some
gold leaf on top when a food is about to
be elevated
usually the first thing is all about
authenticity
[Music]
i think the introduction to the concept
of artisanal ramen
was in a film called tempopo that
was very popular at film festivals
that chef in that ramen yacht was
obsessed with perfecting
every part of ramen
in the film probably was the first time
i had ever heard anyone
slurping that way and that
loudly in a proper setting that's the
kind of thing you
are told never to do
i learned later that there's actually a
reason for it which is that the broth of
ramen is so hot
that you really can't eat it unless you
learn to suck in air
at the same time that's hot
that's 72 celsius you burn your face off
there's infinite amount to learn i mean
you can really go
micro on the noodles for example
and i would say at least 70 of the
products that we make are
ramen noodles within the ramen
noodles that we make we have about 600
different types of ramen noodles
that could be different from the type of
flower blends
the mixture of the water and the ratios
the textures the thicknesses the color
and it really starts with the soup and
so if this if the chef has a specific
type of soup
or type of ramen they're looking to
create then it's a very good base
starting point for us to start that
conversation
what is the last meal before i die
ramen i hope i used a pressure cooker
to get the high concentration of juice
from a chicken
i can get very strong flavor from my
ingredients
yeah we use homebound chicken
sake meating of course soy sauce or
sugar salt yeah many seasonings
it's a mommy bomb you can't not
taste it's too high concentrated
of taste it's very dynamic
in united states i can do everything
in japan if i make like a new
totally new style of ramen some people
said
this is not ramen
it's very uh boring to me that feeling
they really respect old style keep doing
all the style all style i just want to
go to you know the new world which is a
united states
then i can do more freestyle
and then you know people enjoy
ramen is also a great example of
the japanese term umami umami meaning
mouth filling and
savory right and all kinds of soups have
that
they have fattiness they have salt they
have a richness that
almost cannot be described in english
seaweed or kombu is in the broth and
that's a very important part of it
you know people just love the salt and
they crave the salt
i think that the toppings concept is
something that is truly universal things
like shaved ice desserts
soft serve people love to customize and
pile things on
and ramen i think was one of the first
things that we experienced in terms of
japanese
food that was like that i'll add this in
here
i will not miss the opportunity for some
of this
oh yes the stage that we're at now with
ramen
is let's make it our own we're going to
take the best part of a traditional bowl
of ramen the things that we love
but also take from other cultures
ivan ramen is combining two ancient
cultures jewish culture and japanese
culture
this is how you know american food
evolves
we've done one experiment with chef
nakamura where we said what are some of
the things
that we really enjoy about new york
tomatoes italian influence of cheeses
and pizza
was what he thought so what he created
was a very
beautiful chicken broth paired with
tomato sauce and
sausage and really stir fried it and
then pour the chicken broth over
and then what we did is we made noodles
out of durham semolina
with kansi and ramen noodle flour and
crafted this like beautiful
italian tomato ramen things like the
ramen cheeseburger which is something
that was very popular at food trucks a
couple of years ago
where they literally took the blocks
that come in the instant ramen
and deep fried them and use them as the
bun to make burgers
then there are things like dessert ramen
made of like a
blue jello and melted shaved ice i love
jello so you have all these very
creative
young chefs coming up today they're
really i think
pushing it to the edge i believe i can
do more developed ramen
in part ramen allows you to be kind of
free
and maybe this is the reason why a lot
more people are interested because you
don't have so many like strict
guidelines of
this is what you can and cannot do
but really you can express yourself in
the bowl of ramen
[Music]
you